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R i: V I E w 



OF TUE 



REV. MOSES STUART'S PAMPHLET ON 



SLAVERY, 



EK TITLED 



CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION, 



By RUFUS W. CLARK, A. M. 

PASTOR OF T.IE yjORVll ClWAOll, PORTSMOUTH. NEW UAMPSHlftE. 



( Oriffimlly piMhhed in the Boston Dally Alias] 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY C. C. P. MOODY, 

Old Dickinson Office, 52 Washington Street. 
1850. 



m 



REVIEW 



OF THE 



REV. MOSES STUART'S PAMPHLET ON 

S L A V E K Y 



? 



ENTITLED 



CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION, 



By RUFUS W. CLARK, A. M. 

PASTOR OF TUB NORTH CHURCH, PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



f Originally published in the Boston Daily Atlas] 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY C. C. P. MOODY, 

Old Dickinson Office, 52 Washington Street. 
1850. 



Si 



T. ^ 



25718 

NOTE. 

A desire having been very generally expressed, that the Re- 
view of Professor Stuart's work on Slavery, which appeared in 
the Atlas, should be published in a pamphlet form, and one gentle- 
man, of great intelligence and liberality, having kindly offered to 
defray the expense of an edition of three thousand copies for 
gratuitous circulation, the author has been induced to accede to 
this desire, with the hope that a more extended circulation of the 
Review might promote the cause of human freedom. 




CONTENTS. 



1. Preliminary Kemarks 5 

2. Professor Stuarts Introdaction, 10 

3. Is Slaverv a 'Alalum in se " an evil in itself ? IS 

4. The bearing of the Old Testament upon Slarerr, 23 

5. Gradual Emancipation, 28 

6. The Old Testament upon the Fugitive Slave Question, 34 

7. The Prophets and Slaverv, 49 

8. The bearing of the Xew Testament upon Slavery, 53 

9. Mr. Webster and the Constitution, 65 

10. Views of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Patrick Henry, &c. on Slavery, 72 

11. The direct Question, 80 

12. The Texas Question, 88 

13. Concluding Remarks, 97 



REVIEW. 



I. — PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

It is worthy of remark, that the general and intense agitation of 
the Slavery question, throughout our country at the present time, 
is mainly attributable to the slave States themselves. By their 
zeal for the prosecution of the Mexican war, for the purpose of ex- 
tending slavery, and the consequent annexation of a large territory 
to our domain, they have called into existence the State of Califor- 
nia, whose free constitution, has not only thrown into confusion their 
plans for the extension of slavery, but has aroused a degree of 
feeling, and a spirit of discussion, which will not, we apprehend, 
very soon abate. With all their anxiety to prevent agitation, 
especially within the halls of Congress, they have been instru- 
mental, indirectly, in rendering the slavery question the all-absorb- 
ing topic, of at least, one session of Congress, and of directing 
towards its investigation, the highest order of talent in the land. 
All the readable speeches that have come to us from Washington, 
during the last six months, have been upon the slavery question. 
The tariff, post-office reform, internal improvements, private claims, 
and the Cuba expedition, have been almost lost sight of, in the 
deep excitement which this subject has awakened. Reporters have 
written upon little else than slavery, and thus our commercial and 
political newspapers have been made the channels for communi- 
cating slavery arguments and facts, pro and con, through every 
city, town, and village in the Union. The stream of discussion, 
which, but a short time since, was confined to a few newspapers 
and societies, has suddenly overflowed its banks, and is now enter- 
ing other channels, and employing them for the purpose of reaching 
the masses of the community, upon whom the former narrow tide 
was making but little impression. Matter, which but a few years 



since, was pronounced incendiary in its character, is now gravely 
embodied in speeches, made before our national Senators and 
Representatives. Divines, editors, lawyers, and merchants too, 
are entering the field, and the Constitutional and Scriptural argu- 
ments, as well as the evils and political bearings of slavery are 
freely discussed, in cars, steamboats, hotels, in the shop, at the fire- 
side, upon the farm, — wherever newspapers are read, or the claims 
of humanity are felt. 

Nor do we see any prospect of this agitation being arrested, 
while the evils of slavery exist, and especially while there is so 
strono" a disposition manifested by the friends of the system to extend 
it over soil that is noiv free. To behold California knocking at the 
door of our Union, and so long refused admittance, simply because 
she presents herself in the pure white robes of liberty, with no 
chain in her hand, and no curse upon her lips, with her countenance 
radiant with the beauties of philanthropy and love, adorned with a 
wreath in which are inwrought the stars of our national banner, 
•without the stripes, is a spectacle upon which the free, intelligent 
Christian citizen of this Christian Republic, cannot gaze without 
emotion, deep, strong, intense emotion. To see, too, those who 
have so earnestly contended for State rights, — who have so 
eloquently and vehemently advocated the doctrine that each State 
should manage its own domestic institutions, standing at the door 
and saying to this fair suppliant, — You shall not enter, — saying, 
as some have done, — This Union shall be shattered into a thou- 
sand fragments, before our votes shall sustain this free Constitution, 
— is certainly enough to awaken a spirit of agitation, which cannot 
easily nor speedily be allayed. 

Mr. Webster and Mr. Stuart appear before us, as professed 
pacificators in the fiery conflict of opinion which is raging. They 
come with their Constitutional and Bible arguments, confident that 
their words will hush the storm, and reconcile the hostile parties. 
But this agitation is the natural and inevitable result of the genius 
of our institutions. While we are educating so many thousands of 
thinking men and women, with consciences ; while our sympathies 
are so often called forth in behalf of the oppressed and suffering of 
other nations, while we are moved by appeals to send the blessed 



Gospel to the millions who are dwelling in darkness, we cannot but 
be keenly alive to the injustice, the inhumanity of American 
slavery. We cannot educate our sensibilities to feel for one form of 
oppression, and not for another. We cannot have hearts that throb 
with intense sympathy for the struggling Hungarians, the oppressed 
Poles, the vanquished Greeks, and yet remain unmoved under the 
spectacle of three millions of our own citizens, laboring to rend- 
asunder their chains. We cannot heap execrations upon the 
Emperors of Russia and Austria, and weep over the misfortunes of 
Kossuth, and yet have no pity for the panting fugitive in our own 
land, whose only crime is, a desire to be free. 

Scheming politicians may succeed in this, but the mass of the 
people cannot. They are unable to reach such a depth of hypoc- 
risy, as to regulate the exercise of their humanity by the locality 
of the suffering or oppression, and be full of emotion, and over- 
whelmed with indignation for wrongs committed at a distance, and 
ice-hearted under scenes of distress that are at our own door. Nor 
will compromise bills, speeches on the Constitution, or a labored 
exegesis of scriptural authorities upon slavery, produce this result. 
There is not a statesman or professor in the land, who has adroit- 
ness and power enough, to give this tone to the humanity and 
conscience of these Northern States. Neither is their one who has 
suiEcient skill to solve the problem, as to how we shall keep slavery 
in the bosom of the intelhgence, and light, and liberty, and Christi- 
anity of this nation, and make it lie there quietly ; how we shall 
enable two such diametrically opposing elements as American 
slavery and American liberty, to harmonize and dwell together 
peaceably. 

Stop the tide of intelhgence that is flowing from our systems 
of education — extinguish the light of the Gospel, that shines with 
such intensity upon the community from the American pulpit, sub- 
ject humane, noble-hearted editors to an Austrian censorship, anni- 
hilate three-quarters of our literature, which is so thoroughly 
pervaded with the spirit of universal liberty, and then will a calm 
spread over this nation, such as reigns over the Dead Sea. Then, 
and not till then, can the slave-dealer listen to the music of clank- 
ing chains, with none to disturb the serenity of his mind. Then, 



and not till then, will propositions before Congress, to extend this 
evil over free soil, cease to clog the wheels of government, and con- 
vulse the nation. 

It is, therefore, with no spirit of false compromise, nor with any 
hope of pouring oil upon the troubled waters, that we approach our 
subject. Gladly would we, were it in our power, remove the evils 
that disturb the peace of the nation, and endanger the stability of 
the Union. Most gladly would we behold harmony pervading our 
national councils, and this perplexing question put forever at rest. 
But, unless it is the design of Providence, that liberty and slavery 
are to run on in parallel lines in the career of this nation forever, 
then the time must sooner or later come, when, under the natural 
growth of liberty, and the progress of civilization, freedom must 
gain upon slavery, and thus the balance of power, between 
the two, be destroyed. This crisis in the life of our nation, we be- 
lieve to be near. While civilization is advancing in every other 
part of the world, while the despotic systems of Europe are receiv- 
ing successive shocks, from the successive revolutions upon that 
continent, and while even heathen nations are throwing open their 
iron gates for the reception of Gospel truth, we do not behove that 
this nation is to stand alone, deprived of the benefits of a progres- 
sive civilization, and doomed forever to purchase every inch of free 
soil, with an inch of slave soil. This crisis, therefore we must meet 
— meet in the spirit of sincere patriots, conscientious freemen, and 
devoted Christians. And though dangers thicken around us, 
thougli the glorious fabric of our national government tremble, yet 
we would repose in perfect security upon that overruling Provi- 
dence, that guides the nations, and controls the destiny of every 
creature. 

But without further preliminary remarks, we hasten to our work. 

Professor Stuart's pamphlet is entitled " Conscience and the 
Constitution, with remarks on the recent speech of the Hon. 
Daniel Webster, on the subject of Slavery." After a careful 
perusal of what Mr. Stuart has written, and observing how few 
pages are devoted strictly to " Conscience and the Constitution," 
we should give the pamphlet the following title : " A plea for 
American Slavery, based upon Scriptural Authorities, with expres- 



sions of admiration for Mr. Webster ; the whole interspersed with 
arguments and declarations, which overthrow all that is adduced in 
favor of Slavery." 

This is no caricature, as we shall endeavor most abundantly to 
prove ; and here I would remark, once for all, that I shall studi- 
ously guard against saying any thing, that may be regarded as dis- 
respectful or unkind. Nothing is gained to any cause by indulging 
in vituperation, unjust sarcasm, or personal abuse. Our business is 
with arguments and facts, not with persons. 

Mr. Stuart devotes the first twenty-two pages of his pamphlet 
to a somewhat tedious narration of his personal political history, and 
towards the close of his introduction, administers what he designs 
for a severe rebuke to those who have taken the liberty to dissent 
from Mr. Webster. He then (§2) considers " the attitude of 
slavery, as presented by the Old Testament," and under this head 
endeavors to prove, that slavery is not a " malum in se," and in the 
course of his reasoning, manifests strong opposition to those who 
maintain the contrary opinion. 

In section third, (pp. 4-3-56) he presents his views of " the 
attitude of slavery in the New Testament," and contends that 

" "Wliile almost every prevailing sin of the day is expressly and strongly de- 
nounced by tlie Saviour, he does not once touch on the abuses of slavery. Not 
even in his Sermon on the Mount, has he brought this matter into view." 

In bringing his scriptural authorities to bear againsts the oppo- 
nents of slavery, and especially against those who have conscien- 
tious scruples in regard to delivering up fugitives, he manifests a 
zeal "to make out a case," and he writes in a tone of triumph, 
which we regret to see. If the Bible sanctions slavery in any of 
its forms, it would have been more befitting an author to have pre- 
sented his arguments in a tone of sorrow, rather than of triumph. 

In section fourth, Mr. Stuart remarks upon " the influence- 
which Christian principles should have upon our minds, in relation 
to conscience, and to the agitated question of the day." Under 
this head he takes up several points in Mr. Webster's speech of 
March 7th, which he defends with much warmth; and although he 
states at the outset, that it is his purpose to present the scriptural 



10 

view of slavery, yet he wanders into the political arena, whither we, 
after revi wing his Bible arguments, propose to follow him. 

Towards the close of his pamphlet, he addresses to slaveholders a 
very faithful exhortation upon the evils of slavery ; an exhortation, 
however, which, after they have fortified their consciences, with the 
arguments, and imbibed the spirit that precedes, we imagine they 
will be in no favorable mood to receive. 



n. — PROFESSOR STUART'S INTRODUCTION. 

Although we have much matter here which has little relevance, 
to the question at issue, yet there are some points that deserve our 
attention, before we enter upon the main arguments. What the 
Professor says with reference to his right to discuss the subject of 
slavery, and give his views to the public, receives our cordial 
approval. 

"It lies," he says, page 4, " within my proper sphere of duty to hold up bc- 
f jre the wo Id, the declarations and doctrines of God's eternal word ; for I 
have been a preacher of the Gospel, according to the best of my knowledge 
and ability, for more than forty-five years. More than forty of these have 
been spent in the study of the Bible ; and the consequence has been, that this 
book has taken a paramount place in my reverence, and in my sense of duty 
to obey it." 

In reference to his right to sound " the words of prophets and 
apostles in the ears of our great community," he adds : 

" I claim that right. I expect, however, to be condemned by some, and 
perhaps maligned by others, for exercising that right. No matter. It is but of 
little consequence what becomes of me, if the teachings of ' the glorious Gos- 
pel of the blessed God ' may come in their simplicity, and power, and authority, 
before the public in any manner that will attract their attention." 

This same right we claim, and surely we have no stronger desire, 
than that " the teachings of the glorious Gospel of our blessed 
God," may not only receive the attention of the community, but 
also may convince their understandings, and sanctify their hearts. 
And if Mr. Stuart claims the right of agreeing with Mr. 
Webster, and of giving his reasons for so doing, we equally claim 



11' 

the right of cTisagreemg -with him, and of giving our reasons for so 
doing. Indeed, while reading that remarkable speech, I could not 
but be reminded of the many forcible and splendid passages of the 
former speeches of the great statesman, wherein he so noblj eulo- 
gizes the cause of liberty, and so carefully instructs us in reference 
to our duty in guarding the citadel of freedom. In his speech on 
the President's Protest, he says : 

" "We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel 
upon the watchtower of liberty. Is he to be blind, though visible danger 
approaches ? Is he to be deaf, though sounds of peril fill the air ? Is lie to be 
dumb, while a thousand duties impel him to raise the cry of alarm ? Is he not 
rather to catch the lowest whisper that breaths intention or purpose of en- 
croachment on the public liberties, and to give his voice, breath, and utterance at 
the first appearance of danger ? Is not his eye to traverse the whole horizon 
with the keen and eagle vision of an unhooded hawk, detecting through all dis- 
guises, every enemy advancing in any form towards the citadel he guards." 

These noble sentiments were lingering about my memory, while 
I read in Mr. Webster's slavery speech such passages as the 
following : 

" As far as the new acquisitions are concerned, I am disposed to leave them 
to be disposed of as the hand of Nature shall determine. It is what I always 
have insisted upon. Leave that portion of the country more natural to a non- 
slaveholding population to be filled by that description of population, and leave 
that portion into which slavery would naturally go, to be filled by a slave- 
holding population — destroying artificial lines ; though perhaps they may be 
better than none." 

" Therefore, I repeat, sir, and I repeat it because I wish it to be understood, 
that I do not propose to address the Senate often on this subject. I desire to 
pour out all my heart in as plain a manner as possible ; and I say again, that if 
a proposition were now here for a government for New Mexico, and it was 
moved to insert a provision for a prohibition of slavery, I would not vote for it." 

Again, in the same speech, on the President's Protest, Mr. 
Websteb, says : 

" The spirit of liberty is indeed a bold and fearless spirit ; but it is also a 
sharp-sighted spirit; it is jealous of encroachment, jealous of power, jealous of 
man. It seeks for guards ; it entrenches itself behind strong defences, and for- 
tifies with all possible care, against the assaults of ambition and passion." 



12 

Yes, under the tuition of such sentiments, we have been taught 
to guard the spirit of liberty. This spirit has entrenched itself in 
the philanthropy and Christianity of these Northern States, and 
there we believe it is fortified " with all possible care against the 
assaults of ambition and passion," — even the ambition of him who 
has so suddenly left the watchtower of Liberty, to become the 
guardian of Slavery. 

It is with the keenest regret that we, in common with thousands 
and tens of thousands of others, feel called upon to dissent from the 
views and doctrines which Mr. Webster has advanced in his 
slavery speech. We cannot forget his past invaluable services 
in the councils of our nation, his patriotic defence of our free insti- 
tutions in the hour of peril, his amicable settlement of the boundary 
question with Great Britain, — a deed for which he deserves the 
thanks of the civilized world. But we have not been such unfaith- 
ful scholars, in the school of the great New England statesman, as 
now to repudiate the lessons which he has taught us. We have 
not listened to his thrilling eloquence so inattentively, we have not 
looked at his noble principles, and patriotic sentiments, so cursorily, 
as now, even at the dictation of the master himself, to do violence 
to the dictates of conscience, and the promptings of humanity. 

We may, indeed, be told that the design of Mr. Webster in his 
speech was to present the constitutional argument upon the slavery 
question, and thus allay the intense excitement which pervaded the 
nation, and that he is not to be condemned until his arguments are 
refuted. Mr. Stuart remarks (page 22) : " It is my sober con- 
viction that very much less of excitement would now exist, did not 
the array of Mr. Webster's arguments appear so formidable." 

Without wishing to anticipate, here, the considerations of these 
arguments, which we shall take up in the order in which they are 
noticed in the pamphlet before us, I cannot yet forbear remarking, 
that the warmest friends and ablest defenders of Mr. Webster can 
not deny that this speech is thoroughly pro-slavery in its character. 
The spirit of slavery runs through it from the beginning to the 
end. We look in vain for one breath of humanity, for one bright 
spot to relieve the total darkness. Even the few cold thoughts 
that he tells us, he designed to utter respecting the unjustifiable 



13 

imprisonment of our free citizens in South Carolina and other 
Southern States, are forgotten in his overwhelming zeal to protect 
the peculiar institution ; and they come in afterwards, to claim their 
place in the published reports of the speech. 

Had Mr. Webster risen in the Senate with his soul filled with 
indignation at the wrongs that the North has suffered from the 
South, would this subject have been forgotten ? Would he have 
remembered so much on the other side of the question, and have 
allowed this little fragment for freedom to have escaped his 
memory ? * 

When upon the Wilmot Proviso, he seemed most tenderly alive 
to the delicate sensibilities of the South, and would on no account 
wound their pride. And this speech comes from his lips when they 
are scarcely cold from those warm and sympathetic utterances 
which have gone forth in behalf of the vanquished, oppressed 
Hungarians. Yes, after weeping over a fleeing Kossuth, and heap- 
ing the most crushing anathemas upon the Emperor of Ptussia, for 
demanding, in violation of the laws of nations, the laws of con- 
science, and the laws of God, that the Turkish government deliver 
him up, he enters the American Senate Chamber and pronounces 
this speech ! Had these three millions of slaves been in the heart 
of France, or within the confines of Great Britain, or on Mexican 
soil, would not at least one burning word have reached and cheered 
their hearts ? 

But we may be met with the inquiry, what right have you to call 
in question the words or measures of public men ? I reply, the 
very right that the great statesman himself contends for in the 
following declaration : 

" The more I perceive a disposition to check the freedom of inquiry by ex 
travagant and unconstitutional pretences, the firmer shall be the tone, in -which 
I shall assert, and the freer the manner, in -which I shall exercise it. It is the 
ancient and undoubted prerogative of this people to canvass public measures 
and the merits of public men. It is a ' home-bred right ; ' a fireside privilege 

* From all the evidence we can gather, -we have reason to believe that Mr. 
Webster had a note of this topic in his minutes, and designed to allude to it, 
but his mind was so full of the icrongs that the South has sufiered from the 
North, that he forgot it ! ! Unfortunate, indeed ! 



14 

It hath ever been enjoyed in every house, cottage, and cabin in the nation, 
It is not to be drawn into the controversy. It is as undoubted as the right of 
breathing the air, or walking on the earth. Belonging to private life as a 
riglt, it belongs to public life as a duty ; and it is the last duty, which those, 
whose representative I am, shall find me to abandon. Aiming at all times to be 
courteous and temperate in its use, except when the right itself shall be ques- 
tioned, I shall then carry it to its extent. I shall place myself on the extreme 
boundary of my rights, and bid defiance to any arm that would move me from 
my o-round. This high constitutional privilege I shall defend and exercise 
within this house, and without this house, and in all places, in time of war, in 
time of peace, and at all times. Living, I shall assert it , dying, I shall assert 
it ; and should I leave no other inheritance to my children, by the blessing of 
God, I will still leave them the inheritance of free principles, and the example 
of a manly, independent, and conscientious discharge of them." — Speech in 
Congress, 1814. 

Under this broad shield we shall proceed with our work. 

Mr. Stuart, in the latter part of his Introduction, alludes to the 
objectionable company in which the judicious and Christian dissent- 
ers from Mr. Webster find themselves, classing them, though not 
associating them, with the ultra and fanatical abolitionists. He 
says, " it is an unblest, unnatural union — this union of these with 
those — one of the matches not made in heaven, that has brought 
together such reputable men," and those who have heaped upon 
him abuse, &c. Now, I see not why Mr. Stuart should class those 
■whom he calls " men of intelligence, of patriotism, of integrity, 
men adorned with every civil and social virtue," with the ultraists 
referred to, any more than they should class him and Dr. Woods, 
and Prof. Emerson, who signed the Webster letter, with the fanati- 
cal and infidel defenders of slavery, with slave drivers and men 
stealers. For one, I have too much respect for these honored and 
conscientious Professors to associate them with such men. They 
stand infinitely above them, in point of moral excellence, integrity, 
patriotism, and every Christian virtue. Their characters are 
unblemished. Their piety is undoubted. The services they have 
rendered in their several departments of Biblical literature, didactic 
theology, and ecclesiastical history, entitle them to the lasting 
gratitude of the American church. 

But we would say, that of a very large proportion of their com- 
pany, these gentlemen who dissent from Mr. Webster have no 



15 

reason to be ashamed. If they stand on this question with Jeffer- 
son, Patrick Henrj, Channing, Barnes and Wayland, of our own 
country, with Clarkson, Sharp, Macaulay and Wilberforce, who 
headed the anti-slavery movement in England, with Khode 
Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, 
as they stood, or a large portion of their inhabitants at least, as far 
back as 1791, when they sent in memorials to Congress for the 
abolition of slavery ; — if they stand with the members of the 
Legislatures of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and Ohio, all of whom 
expressed strong anti-slavery views at their last sessions, they have 
no reason to be ashamed of their company. 

In order to show the extent to which the views prevail, which 
have been advanced by the Boston Atlas, by the members of Con- 
gress and the masses of intelligent and patriotic citizens in Massa- 
chusetts, who have dissented from Mr. Webster, I will quote from 
the action of some of these Legislative bodies. To go back, how- 
ever, first to the memorialists of 1791. 

In the memorial from Connecticut it is stated : 

" That tlie whole system of African slavery is unjust in its nature, impolitic 
in its principles, and in its consequences ruinous to the industry and enter- 
prise of the citizens of these States." 

The memoriahsts from Pennsylvania say : — 

" We wish not to trespass on your time by referring to the different declara- 
tions made by Congress, on the inalienable right of all men to equal liberty, 
neither would we attempt in this place, to point out the inconsistency of 
extending freedom to apart only of tie human race." 

Hear, however, the voice that sixty years ago was uttered by 
Virginia : — 

" Your memorialists believing that ' righteousness exalteth a nation,' and 
that slavery is not only an odious degradation, but an outrageous violation of 
one of the 7nost essential rights of human nature, and utterly repugnant to the 
precepts of the gospel, which breathes ' peace on earth, and good will to men,' 
they lament that a practice so inconsistent with true policy, and the inalienable 



16 

riglits of men, should subsist in an enligbtened age, and among a people pro- 
fessing that all mankind are hj nature equally entitled to freedom." 

These memorials were not only read in the House of Representa- 
tives, but were referred to a select committee. 

The following are some of the resolutions passed by the States 
referred to : — 

MAINE, (July 6, 1849.) 

" Whereas, The people of Maine regard slavery with feelings of profound 
abhorrence, as conflicting with the great principles of freedom and free gov- 
ernment, detrimental to political progress ; that it ought not to be upheld or 
sanctioned in the capital of our glorious Union, the very sanctuary of liberty ; 

therefore, 

" Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be requested 
to use their utmost influence to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the 
District of Columbia by all constitutional means." 

MASSACHUSETTS, (April 27, 1850.) 

» AVhereas, The people of Massachusetts, acting under a solemn sense of duty, 
have deliberately and repeatedly avowed their purpose to resist the extension 
of slavery into the National Territories, or the admission of new slave States 
into the Union, and for these ends, to apply, in every practical mode, the 
principles of the Ordinance of 1787 ; also, to seek the abolition of slavery 
and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and the withdrawal of the 
power and influence of the General Government from the support of slavery, 
so far as the same may be constitutionally done ; and whereas, the important 
questions now before the country, make it desirable that these convictions 
should be reaffirmed. * * * * 

" Resolved, That the integrity and permanence of American power on the 
Pacific Ocean, the increase of our commerce and wealth, the extension of our 
institutions, and the cause of human freedom on this continent, require the 
immediate admission of California into this Union, with her present constitu- 
tion, without reference to any other question or measure whatever. 

" Resolved, That the sentiments of the people of Massachusetts, as expressed 
in their legal enactments, in relation to the delivering up of fugitive slaves, 
remain unchanged ; and, inasmuch as the legislation necessary to give effect 
to the clause of the Constitution, relating to this subject, is within the exclu- 
sive jurisdiction of Congress, we hold it to be the duty of that body to pass 
such laws only, in regard thereto, as will be sustained by the public sentiment 
of the free States, where such laws are to be enforced, and which shall espe- 
cially secure to all persons, whose surrender may be claimed, as having 
escaped from labor and service in other States, the right of having the validity 
of such claim determined by a jury in the State where such claim is made. 



17 

" Resolved, That the people of INIassachusetts, in the maintenance of these, 
their well known and invincible jirinciples, expect that all their officers and 
representatives will adhere to them at all times, on all occasions, and 
under all circumstances. 

The above passed the Senate with only four dissenting voices, 
and in the House unanimously. 

NEW HAMPSHIKE, (Jul)', 1849.) 

In substance as follows : 

1. That the people deeply regret the existence of slavery in this Union, as 
a great social evil, and fraught with danger to the peace and welfare of the 
nation. 2. That both the opponents of slavery and slaveholding communities, 
have in periods of excitement, resorted to measures they have opposed and 
censured, and slaveholding communities have resorted to measures equally de- 
serving of the severest condemnation. 3. That they will respect all the rights 
which the Constitution guarantees to the slave States. 4. That they are firmly 
and unalterably opposed to the extension of slavery over any portion of 
American soil now free. 

VERMONT, (Nov. 12, 1849.) 

Resolved hij the Senate and House of Representatives, That slavery is a 
crime against humanity, and a sore evil in the body politic, that was excused 
by the framers of the Federal Constitution as a crime entailed upon the 
country by their predecessors, and tolerated solely as a thing of inexorable 
necessity. 

Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be requested 
to resist, by all and every constitutional means, the extension of slavery in any 
manner, whether by the annexation to slaveholding Texas, of territory now 
free, or by the admission to the Union of Territory already acquired, or which 
may be hereafter acquired, without any prohibition of Slavery. 

NEW YORK, (Feb., 1850.) 
In substance as follows : 

1. That laws should be passed that will effectually and forever put an end 
to the slave trade in the District of Columbia. 2. That they wIU oppose, by 
all constitutional means, the extension of slavery over the territory acquired 
from Mexico. 3 That the extension of human slavery, or the jurisdiction of 
Texas over any part of New Mexico, shall be firmly resisted. 4. That Cali- 
fornia should be admitted into the Union, with her present Constitution. 5. 
That the people of New York will oppose all attempts to effect a dissolution 

of the Union. 

o 



18 



The Democratic Convention passed the following resolution, 
January 8, 1850 

Resolved — That the people of Ohio, now, as they always have done, look 
upon the institution of slavery in any part of the Union, as an evil, as un- 
favorable to the full developement of the spirit and practical benefits of free 
institutions ; and that, entertaining these sentiments, they will at the same time 
feel it to be their duty to use all power clearly given by the national compact, 
to prevent its increase, to mitigate, and finally to eradicate the evil. 

The Whig State Convention, on the 6th May, 1850 : 

Resolved — That in all territorial governments hereafter organized by Con- 
gress, we here reiterate the principle declared by the Whig State Convention 
of 1848, " that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude therein, 
otherwise than for the punishment of crime." 

I have before me, also, the action of more than twelve of our most 
influential ecclesiastical bodies, that have passed resolutions similar 
to these. Some of these I shall have occasion to quote in connec- 
tion with other points. 

Besides, there is a vast amount of hostility to this system, in the 
Northern, Western, and even some of the Southern States, which 
has never been expressed beyond private circles, because of the in- 
judicious and denunciatory course of the extreme ultraists upon this 
question. These thousands have been and continue to be silent, 
from the fear of being charged with being parties to " an unjust 
and unnatural union," such as Mr. Stuart refers to. 



NO. m. — IS SLAVERY A "MALUM IN SE"— AN EVIL IN 

ITSELF ? 

In § 2, Mr. Stuart discusses this question, and takes the ground 
that slavery is not a malum in se, and appeals to the Bible to prove 
the correctness of his position. 

" One leading position of the anti-slavery party," he says, 
(p.22,) " a thousand, thousand times repeated, is, that slavery, on 
the part of the master is a crime of the first magnitude, — a real 



19 

malum in se — a crimen capitis — a misdeed to be placed by the 
side of murder, adultery, robbery, treason, and the like." 

Now, this language or form of putting the question I do not 
appear here to defend, neither am I called upon to defend those, if 
they are such, who use this language. As I belong to no anti 
slavery party, or society, I have nothing to do with their phraseo- 
logy, except to remark, that it is often of such a character as to 
impede the progress of the cause that they espouse, and seriously 
embarrass the action of the mass of judicious, though decided and 
earnest opponents of the system of slavery. 

It is sufficient, therefore, in order to meet fairly and fully our 
author's reasoning, to take the position that slavery is a sin, a " tna- 
lum in «e," and as such has no warrant in the Holy Scriptures. If 
I understand Professor Stuart, he denies this. At the close of his 
Old Testament argument, he says, (p. 42) : " It will not do here 
to alledge that the Hebrews were permitted to hold slaves, because 
they were an obstinate and rebellious people. It is only in matters 
less strenuous than this, (I mean such as were not 'mala in «e,) 
that any indulgence of this kind could be granted. ***** 
Slavery, therefore, under the Jewish dispensation, by purchase from 
the heathen, ivas not one of these crimes." 

In opposition to this, I affirm that slavery, or the subjecting of 
our fellow men to involuntary servitude, and forcing them to labor 
for our benefit, is semper et uhique, always and every where a sin, 
a direct violation of our obligations to man and our duties to God. 
The guilt of this sin, however, is not in all cases equal, but varies 
according to the light that the slaveholder enjoys, and the civil 
laws under which he hves. Should Professor Stuart, or the Hon. 
Daniel Webster, purchase and own slaves they would be vastly 
more guilty than Senator Foote or the delegates to the Nashville 
Convention would be, should they do the same thing. 

In some parts of the South, there are many circumstances that 
greatly mitigate the guilt of this sin, and I rejoice to acknowledge, 
that some masters and mistresses treat their servants with great 
kindness. 

Before subjecting the position which we have assumed to the test 
of the Bible, it will aid us, in our discussion, to define the meaning of 



20 

the phrase malum in se. The word malum, as used by latin authori. 
ty, sometimes means simply an injui7 or hurt, without any moral 
quality pertaining thereto. Cicero thus uses it in the passage " ma- 
lum mihi videtur esse mors.'' (see Stuart's Ed. of Select Classics, 
vol. 1, p. IT, § 6.) At other times it is used in the sense of moral 
evil. Oar author designs, no doubt, to use this term in his pamph- 
let, in a very definite sense ; and, yet, in a letter which he wrote 
to Dr. Fish, under date of Andover, April 10, 1837, which letter 
was published, he said, in speaking of the sin of slavery, " The abuse 
of it is the essential and fundamental wrong. Not that the theory 
of slavery is right in itself. No. ' Love thy neighbor as thyself.' 
But the relation, once constituted and continued, is not such a 
malum in se as calls for immediate and violent disruption at all 
hazards." 

" Not such a malum in se'' Then, it seems, in the view of our 
author, that there are different kinds of mala in se, but which kind 
slavery is he does not inform us. " But the relation once consti- 
tuted and continued, is not such," &c. Then, if we understand 
this language, the sin and guilt of slavery lessens after the relation is 
constituted and continued ; that is, the longer a man holds his 
slaves, the less is his guilt ; a doctrine which it would certainly not 
be very safe for us to apply, from the pulpit to other sins. If I 
steal my neighbor's horse, the relation of thief, " once constituted 
and continued," would not, I think, lessen the sinfulness of the 
act. But the Professor says too, " Not that the theory of slavery 
is right in itself." If now, the theory of slavery is not right, it is 
obviously wrong, and morally wrong. 

Indeed, Professor Stuart acknowledges on the very next page, 
after given the leading position of his opponents, respecting the sin- 
fulness of slavery, (page 23,) that "slavery for the most part, ori- 
ginates in violence, and has its deepest foundation in the simple, 
but utterly unjust principle, that " might is right." Now, if it " ori- 
ginates in violence, and has its deepest foundation in the utterly un- 
just p7'inciple, that might is right," is it not properly termed a mor- 
al evil, a " real malum in se? " Can that which rest upon an utter- 
ly unjust principle, be right under any circumstances ? 

I dwell thus upon this point, because it is a fundamental point 



21 

in our argument, and because Professor S. devotes a large portion 
of his pamphlet to prove from the Bible that slavery is not a malum 
in se. Indeed, this opinion is the great " quietus " to the con- 
sciences of Christian slaveholders, and its fallacy should be exposed. 

There is one important distinction, however, to be made between 
the nature of sin, and the guilt of sin. One may " offend against 
right," or transgress a moral law of God, ignorantly, and not be 
chargable with guilt ; while another with greater light and know- 
ledge, may commit a similar act and grossly sin. 

This distinction with reference to the terms, " ??^om^ mZ" is 
brought out with great clearness and force by President Wayland, 
(see letter to Dr. Fuller, page 24) whose authority as well as words, I 
am happy to quote. He says : " The term moral evil may be used 
to designate two ideas, widely dissimilar from each other, and 
depending upon entirely different principles. In the one sense it 
means wrong, the violation of the relations which exist between the 
parties, the transgression of the moral law of God. In the other 
sense, it signifies the personal guilt, which attaches to the being 
who does the wrong, violates the obligation, or transgresses the law. 

In the first sense, moral evil depends upon the immutable rela- 
tions which God has established between his moral creatures. 

In the second sense, meaning personal guilt, it depends upon 
lio'ht, knowledge of duty, means of obtaining information on the 
subject, and may be difi'erent in different persons, and at difi"erent 
times." 

He also adds : — "It has seemed to me that much of the mis- 
understanding which has existed on this subject has arisen from the 
want of attention to this obvious distinction. We at the North, 
have considered too exclusively the first, and you, at the South, as 
exclusively the second of these meanings of the term moral evil. The 
one party has shown that slavery is always a violation of right, and 
has inferred, that, therefore, it always involves equal guilt. 
The other party has urged the circumstances in which they and 
their slaves are placed, and has aimed to show that in their present 
condition they are not necessarily chargeable with guilt, and hence 
have inferred that slavery is not a wrong, or the violation of any. 
moral law." 

9* 



22 

President Wayland then goes fully into his reasons for regarding 
slavery as a moral evil, after making the following declaration : "I 
believe it to be a wrong, idterly and absolutely at variance with the 
relations which God has estabhshed between his moral and intelli- 
gent creatures." 

Mr. Stuart accuses the enemies of slavery of calling it " a sin of 
the first magnitude." How many degress below this will he place 
it ? In his classification of sins, where will he in insert this, that he 
acknowledges rests " upon an utterly unjust principle," that he 
would sooner " cut off his right hand " than vote for, that " turns 
the imago of God into goods and chattels.,' 

The truth is, that Mr. Stuart has so much conscientiousness, so 
much Christianity in his heart, that he cannot prevent the scintilla- 
tions of his humanity and sense of right, from bursting up through 
the frame work of his cold arguments. 

Throughout his pamphlet, as we shall soon see, there are scatter- 
ing these columns of light that cheer on the reader in his pilgrim- 
age through this waste of exploded theories, and serve to reveal the 
fallacy of all the arguments that are adduced in favor of slavery. 

The Hon. Mr. Webster is unfortunate in having so conscientious 
a defender. Would he obtain solid and lasting comfort under his 
present trials, he must go elsewhere than to the Theological Semi- 
nary at Andover. Where all* three of the Professors who signed 
the letter of approval, to rush to his rescue, I apprehend that they 
would not be able to render him any very essential service. Men 
who have been studying all their lives such passages as " Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself," " Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do unto you, do ye also unto them," are not al)le to render 
consolation adequate to the present case. 

In succeeding numbers we shall bring slavery to the test of 
scripture authority, and endeavor to show that it is a malum in se, 
or more definitely, a moral evil. 



* It is due to the reputation of the venerable and highly respected Theolo- 
gical Institution at Andover, to state, that only one of the Professors officially 
connected with the Seminary signed the letter of approbation that was sent to 
Mr. Webster. 

I 



23 

IV. THE BEARING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT UPON 

SLAVERY. 

Does the Bible sanction slavery in any of its forms, or under any 
circumstances ? 

This is the question now before us, and we wish to meet it fairly 
and honestly. We have no disposition to turn or twist any passao-e 
out of its obvious meaning to suit our views, neither shall we soften 
down any testimonies or denunciations that we find recorded against 
this great system of iniquity. 

We allow that slavery is an institution of great antiquity. It ex- 
isted before the flood — in the times of the patriarchs — under the 
Mosaic dispensation — when the prophets wrote — and at the time 
Christianity was established. Under the patriarchs, however, the 
system existed under many modifications, which rendered it less se- 
vere and rigorous than it is in our own land. Moses found the in- 
stitution in existence, and at once enacted laws for the regulation of 
master and slave, and to ameliorate the condition of the slave. He 
provided that Hebrew men should be held in slavery only six years, 
and that on the seventh year the^ should go free. Mr. Stuart 
gives us a view of the manner in which men became slaves, and of 
their condition among the Hebrews, which is substantially the same 
view that is given by Yahn, in his Biblical Archaeology, by Home, 
in his Introduction to the critical study of the Holy Scriptures, and 
by Commentators in general. 

I will sketch briefly the ways in which men became slaves, and 
the treatment they received, using in part the language of Yahn, 
as translated by Professor Upham, in order that the whole subject 
may be fairly before us, and that we may be able to compare He- 
brew slavery with American slavery. 

Men became slaves : 

1. % being taken captives in war . Some supposed this to have 
been the origin of Slavery. — Deut. xx. 11, xxi. 10. 

2. By debts. These, as well as captivity in war, became an oc- 
casion of slavery, when they were so large that the debtor was una- 
ble to pay them. — 2d of Kings iv. 1. Isaiah I. 1. 

3. By theft, when the thief was too poor to repay the amount 
that he had stolen. 



24 

4. By man stealing. Against this crime, Moses enacted laws of 
very great severity. — Exodus xxi. 16. " He that stealeth a man, 
and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he sliall surely be 
put to death." 

Upon this passage, the Rev. Albert Barnes, one of our most dis- 
tinguished scholars and ablest critics, makes the following remarks 
in his " Scriptural views of Slavery," p. 118. 

" The place which this solemn prohibition occupies in the Mosaic system, and 
the circumstances of the Hebrew people at the time, deserve to be attentively 
considered. It is among the first of the precepts which were uttered after the 
giving of the ten commandments on Mount Sinai. It was designed to stand 
among the precepts which were regarded as elementary. * * * * The 
crime referred to in this law of Moses, is stated in a three-fold form — stealing^ 
selling and holding a man. All these are put on a level, and in each case the 
penalty was the same — death. This is, of course, the highest penalty that can 
be inflicted, and this shows that Moses ranked this among the highest crimes 
known to his laws. It is worthy of observation, also, that Moses distinguishes 
this in the strongest manner from all other kinds of theft. In no other case in 
his laws, is theft punishable with death," 

5. By birth, when the parents were slaves. 

6. By voluntary sale, as when a man oppressed by poverty sold 
himself. 

7. By 2Jurchase, by one master of another. 

This was the most common method of obtaining them. The price 
of a slave was different, at different times, varying with the age, sex, 
health, skill, &c., or of the individual sold. 

Let us now consider the condition of slaves among the Hebrews. 

The great and redeeming feature of this system was that the 
seventh year, and especially on the year of jubilee, all the Hebrew 
slaves were permitted to go free. But, besides this, Moses required : 

1. That servants or slaves should be treated with the greatest 
humanity. 

2. That the master who slew a servant, of whatever origin, with 
a rod or by means of blows, should be punished according to the 
will or pleasure of the judge. 

3. He also enacted if the master injured the servant by destroying 
an eye or a tooth, that is, according to the spirit of the law, by injur- 



2a 

ing any member whatever, the servant, in consequence of this, 
should receive his freedom. See Exodus, xxi. 26, 27. 

4. That the servants, on every Sabbath, and on all festival occa- 
sions, should enjoy a cessation from their labors. Exod. xx. 10 ; 
Deut. V. 14. 

5. That the servants in accordance with an ancient law or cus- 
tom, to which there is an allusion in Job xxiv. 10, 11, were entitled 
to, and should receive, an adequate subsistence from those to whom 
they were subject. Deut. xxv. 4 ; comp. 1. Tim. v. 18; 1 Cor. 
ix. 9. 

6. Slaves who were Hebrews by birth were permitted to possess 
a little property of their own, as may be learned from Lev. xxv. 
49, compared with II. Sam. 9, 10. 

Such, then, is a concise view of Hebrew slavery, in an age of 
comparative ignorance and darkness. With regard, however, to 
slaves obtained from among the Canaanites, I would remark, that 
these were treated, in some respects, with more severity than the 
Hebrew slaves. All, however, were required to be circumcised, 
and were thus admitted to all the privileges of the Jewish religion. 
But the inquiry now arises, if slavery is a moral evil, a sin, why did 
God sanction it among his chosen people ? If, by the word " sanc- 
tion," the inquirer means approve, I would reply, that God did not 
sanction or approve of slavery, any more than he sanctioned or ap- 
proved of polygamy, or concubinage, sins that were then prevalent ; 
or any more than he approved of bloody and cruel wars, when he 
allowed, and even commanded, the Hebrews to slay the idolatrous 
Canaanites. If by sanction the inquirer means permission, then I 
reply : 

1. That God has seen fit to make to mankind a gradual revela- 
tion of his will, affording more light to those living in patriarchal 
times than to the antediluvians, more to those living under the Mo- 
saic dispensation than to their predecessors, more to the Christians 
than to the Jews, and he has permitted this and other sins because 
of the people's " hardness of heart." 

2. Had Moses at once abolished slavery, and the same remark 
will apply to polygamy and divorce, the results might have been 
destructive to his administration, and the whole Mosaic economy. 



26 

We should remember how obtuse were the moral sensibilities of those 
with whom he had to deal, — how feeble was the light that they en- 
joyed, and how difficult it was for him to keep the whole people from 
falhng into the grossest idolatry. Had he, under such circumstan- 
ces, positively forbidden these sins, his authority would doubtless 
have been derided, and all his designs of gradually elevating and 
instructing the people would have been defeated. 

With regard to polygamy and divorce, we know that these are 
violations of the principles which God has established between the 
sexes, and contrary to his law. Yet Moses did not forbid these sins. 
He not only allowed them, but established laws prescribing the man- 
ner in which a wife should be put away, and the rights of the first 
born be decided. The views advanced by our Saviour, in his dis- 
cussion with the Jews on this point, as recorded by Matt. xix. 3 — 
9, are worthy of our special attention. 

" The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him : Is 
it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause ? And he answered 
and said unto them : Have ye not read that he which made them at the begin- 
ning, made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave 
father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh ? 
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath 
joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses 
then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away ? He 
saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put 
away your wives ; tut from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you 
Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall, 
marry another, commiteth adultery, and whoever marrieth her which is put 
away, doth commit adultery." 

Here we see that an act that is permitted and regulated by Mosaic 
laws, under one degree of light, is under another and higher degree, 
pronounced, by the highest authority, adultery. Will not Professor 
Stuart acknowledge that the sin of adultery is a malum in se f If 
he does acknowledge it, then he utterly destroys his whole train of 
argument, by which he endeavors to prove that slavery is not a 
'■'■ malum in se." For he distinctly and repeatedly affirms, that if 
slavery is a malum in se, God would never have sanctioned, or per- 
mitted it ; and it follows that if adultery is a malum in se, God could 
not have sanctioned or permitted this. Observe that our Saviour 



21 

does not say that the puttmg a^ay of a ^ife, &c., is like adultery, 
or as bad as adultery, but he that doeth this committeth adultery. 
What kind of a sin, therefore, I ask Professor Stuart, is adultery ? 
Let us hear his own words. Qn page 42, in summing up his old 
testament argument, he says : 

" I have but one question more to ask, and I shall then leave this part of our 
subject. This question is very simple and plain : Did the God of the Hebrews 
give permission to them to commit a malum in se ? Did he give unlimited 
liberty to do that which is equivalent to murder and adultery f To this point 
the matter comes. There is no shunning the question. It will not do here, to 
alledge that the Hebrews were permitted to hold slaves, because they were an 
obstinate and rebellious people. It is only in matters less strenuous than this, 
(I mean such as were not 7nala in se,) that any indulgence of the kind could 
be granted. Crimes mala in se cannot be transformed into no crimes, by heaven 
or earth. Slavery, therefore, under the Jewish dispensation, by purchase from 
the heathen, was not one of these crimes. The God of the Bible could never 
sanction the commission of such." 

Again, on page 22, he accuses his opponents of making slavery 
" a misdeed to be placed by the side of murder, adultery, &c." 

Now I wish to press this point with all the force that the case 
demands. The " question is very simple and plain." Indeed it is. 
" Did the God of the Hebrews give permission to them to commit a 
malum in se ? " I answer, if he permitted them to do that, which 
under a higher degree of light Christ pronounced adultery, and if 
adultery is a malum in se, as Professor Stuart, by the plainest im- 
plication acknowledges, (for he clasess adultery with murder, for 
the express purpose of showing that it is a malum in se, and as 
such a higher crime than slavery,) then God does give permission 
to commit a malum in se, in the circumstances referred to. " To 
this point the matter comes. There is no shunning the question." 
There is indeed no shunning it. If Professor Stuart affirms, as he 
has done, " that the God of the Bible could never sanction " or per- 
mit a malum in se,and if Christ affirms, as he has done, that a form 
of adultery (which sin Professor Stuart admits is a malum in se,') 
■was sanctioned by God on account of the hardness of the Hebrew 
heart, then either Christ or our author is in the wrong. To which 
shall we bow ? and what becomes of Professor Stuart's boasted ar- 
gument 1 



28 

What too shall we say of one, standing as high as Professor Stuart 
does, for putting into the minds of the slaveholders in our land, the 
idea that the Bible does not condemn slavery as an evil in itself, and 
thus strengthening, by a false exegesis, this gigantic system of ini- 
quity ! ! In the name of the 3,000,000 of oppressed slaves in our 
land, -who are interested, deeply, vitally interested in the truth or 
fallacy of this reasoning, in the name of the tens of thousands who 
are conscientiously asking, What says the Bible on this question 
of slavery that is agitating the community ? I do solemly protest 
against this perversion of God's holy word to sustain a system that 
already has such strength, and is struggling with such violence to 
extend itself over soil now consecrated to freedom. 

If I, in my zeal for humanity should be betrayed into a false ex- 
egesis, or a misapplication of scripture, I should hope, at the bar of 
the American conscience, and at the bar of God, to be more readily 
acquitted, than though I had been led into such errors to make out 
a case in favor of slavery. 



V. GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. 

On page 29 our author refers to a circumstance in the legisla- 
tion of Moses, in regard to slavery, which he employs as an argu- 
ment against the doctrines of the immediate emancipationists of the 
present day. The circumstance is this : 

When a law was enacted by Moses, on coming out of Egypt, that 
after six years' service, the slave should be free, it applied to male 
servants alone, and not to female servants. As Mr. Stuart justly re- 
marks, " Such was the universal feeling on the subject of slavery, 
when he began to legislate that it would have been hazarding diso- 
bedience and rebellion, if Moses had freed females, as well as males, 
after six years' service." But at the expiration of forty years, 
when the people had become in a measure prepared for it, he ap- 
plied the law to females also, and required that on going free, they 
should be (Deut. xv. 14,) furnished liberally out of the flock, the 
floor, (granary) and the wine-press. 



29 

After presenting this case, our author submits the following re- 
marks : — 

" Why now did uot Moses do this thing at Sinai ? He had both the power 
and the right, for he was divinely commissioned. Why then did he not do it ? 
Simply, I answer, because he had common sense and judgment enough to see, 
that legislation could not change the established internal structure of a nation 
or commonwealth in a day. There must be a preparation for obedience, be- 
fore the law would (or morally speaking) could be obeyed. How different 
such a policy was from that which is trumpeted by the immediate emancipa- 
tionists of our day. It needs no words of mine to show. However, the great 
Jewish legislator seems to be a very insignificant person in the view of many 
of these zealous gentlemen. They think that his eyes were but half opened, if 
indeed they were open so far. Of course, they let this matter of his alone, as 
much as possible, and try to ignore it in all feasible ways. No wonder. It is 
a precedent of frowning aspect on all heated rashness and extravagance, espe- 
cially in respect to great questions where national and universal usages of Ion» 
standing and deep root are concerned." 

Let US now inquire whether this precedent does not frown upon 
the great mass of slaveholders in our country, who are doino' noth- 
ing to meliorate the condition of their slaves, rather than upon those 
who demand that the system of American slavery be at once abol- 
ished. We see that in forty years, in the time of Moses, great prog- 
ress was made in improving the condition of Hebrew slaves. "We 
live at the distance of more than 3000 years from the time of Moses, 
and enjoy not only the institutions of the prophets, but the superior 
light of Christianity. We have a system of slavery in the bosom of 
one of the freest, most enhghtened, most Christian nations upon the 
face of the globe. 

It is reasonable, therefore, to expect that this system will be as 
superior in mildness to the Hebrew system, as that was to the sys- 
tem of the antediluvians. 

Let us compare them. 

1. Under the Hebrews, the slave was held only for six years. I 
speak now of the slaves of Hebrew origin, and not of foreign slaves. 
The latter were held for life, and were subject to a more grievous 
bondage. As the act of legislation now under consideration, relat- 
ed to the Hebrew slaves, it is proper that we compare American 
slaves with these, and not with the other class. 
3 



30 

In our country, we all know that slaves are held for life ; and not 
only are there no provisions for their future emancipation, but in 
several States there are la^YS which are designed to perpetuate sla- 
very. In Georgia, laws were passed in 1801 and in 1818, threatening 
with severe penalties, those who should manumit their slaves, except 
through the action of the Legislature. The law passed in 1801 is 
as follows : (See Prince's Digest, 457.) 

" If any person or persons shall, after the passing of this act, set free any 
slave or slaves, in any other manner, or form than the one prescribed herein 
(that is, by a special legislative act] he shall forfeit for every such offence two 
hundred dollars, to be recovered, &c., and the said slave or slaves so manumit- 
ted and set free, shall be still to all intents and purposes, as much in a state of 
slavery as before they were manumitted by the party or parties so ojfending" 

The law of 1818, (See Prince's Digest, 466,) is still more se- 
vere, and forbids, by even heavier penalties, any one from giving 
his slaves their freedom, by will, at his death. Such a will and 
testament is declared " utterly null and void," and " each and ev- 
ery slave or slaves in whose behalf such will and testament shall 
have been made, shall be liable to be arrested, and be sold as a 
slave or slaves by pubhc outcr3^" 

A similar law was enacted by North Carolina, and in other States 
manumitted slaves are required to be removed beyond the limits 
of the States. Our laws upon this point are even more severe 
than those of the Turks at the present day. For Lieutenant Lynch 
remarks : 

" By a law of the Ottoman Empire, no one within its limits can be held in 
slavery for a period exceeding seven years. _ . _ _ 

In Turkey, every colored person employed by the Government receives 
monthly wages ; and if a slave, is emancipated at the expiration of seven years, 
when he becomes eligible to any office beneath the sovereignty." '"' 

Were the Mosaic system to be applied to American slavery, it 
would be, by the operation of those laws, very soon abolished. 

2. If the Hebrew master destroyed an eye or a tooth of the slave, 
he was obliged by law to give him his freedom. Have we any such 
law upon our statute books ? Judge Stroud has given us a view of 
the slavery laws in the United States, pubhshed in Philadelphia in 



31 

1827, from which it appears that the severest cruelties may be com- 
mitted by the master, while the slave has no redress whatever. 

" The master may at his discretion injiict any species of punishment upon the 
person of his slave." — Stroud, p. 35. 

Even for the murder of a slave, the murderer, in several States, 
is subject only to a fine ; and if the slave die under moderate cor- 
EECTION, the master is fully asquitted ! A law was passed to this 
effect, in North Carolina, in 1708. It closes thus : '• Provided 
always, this act shall not extend to a person killing a slave outlaw- 
ed, &c. or to any slave in the act of resistance to his lawful owner ^ 
or to any slave dying under moderate correction." (See 
Haywood's Manual, 530, as quoted by Rev. Albert Barnes, in his 
" Scriptural Views of Slavery,") to whom I am indebted for sev- 
eral of the laws here referred to. 

I micht cite other laws similar to this, which show that the Amer- 
ican slaveholder can, not only destroy the teeth and eyes of his slave 
lawfully, but can even murder him lawfully, if he does it in cool 
blood, and while moderately correcting him. In 1740 the following 
act was passed in South Carolina : 

" In case any person sliall wilfully cut out the tongue, put out the eye, or 
cruelly scald, burn, or deprive any slave of his limb, or shall inflict any other 
cruel punishment, other than by whipping or beating with a horsewhip or cow- 
skin, or by putting irons on, or confining or imprisoning such slave, every such 
person shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds." 
[See 2 Brevard's Digest, 241.] 

Here we see that for the paltry sum of one hundred pounds, a 
slave may be seriously injured, and rendered wretched for life ; and 
if it be proved that the injury was not cruelly inflicted, no penalty is 
required. How diflFerent is this law from that of Moses, which de- 
manded that the slave should be set free, if deprived only of a sin- 
gle tooth ! 

3. Hebrew slaves enjoyed every religious privilege, were required 
to be circumcised, were invited to the national feasts and festivals, 
and were regularly instructed in the duties of morality and religion. 

In this land, the laws of Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina, 
positively forbid the assemblies of slaves for religious purposes, or for 



32 

instruction. For these laws, see Judge Stroud's Slavery Laws, Bre- 
vard's Digest, Missouri Laws, Louisiana Code, Prince's Digest, &c. 
&c. For the sake of brevity, I will refer to but one. 

In South CaroUna, in 1800, magistrates were empowered with 
authority to disperse any such assemblies at pleasure. "Whenever 
any " slaves, /ree negroes, mnlsittoes, and mestizoes are met together 
for the purpose of mental instruction," the magistrates are " re- 
quired" to enter such places and to " break the doors if resisted, and 
to disperse such slaves," &c., and the officers dispersing such un- 
lawful assemblage may inflict such corporeal punishment, not ex- 
ceeding twenty lashes, on such slaves, free negroes, &c., as they 
may judge necessary for deterring from the like unlawful assembla- 
ges in future.'''' 

The Rev. Mr. Barnes, (Scriptural Views, &c. p. 183,) very 
truly remarks. 

" The means for moral and religious instruction are not granted to the slave, 
but. on the contrary, the efforts of the charitable and humane to supply these 
wants are discountenanced by law. 

The slave has no means of erecting a place of worship, nor could he be 
the owner of the house erected, or of the land on which it stood, or even of 
the most simple communion service, or of the Bible or hymn-book which 
might be used. He has no means of supporting the gospel ; he has no Bible 
from which to give instruction to his children, if he had the ability, nay, it is 
well known that within a few years there have been positive prohibitions in 
many of the slave States against teaching the slave to read the Bible at all, 
and that this has been a penal offence.' 

4. The Hebrew master was obliged to provide for the marriage 
of his maid-servants, unless he took them as concubines or gave them 
to his son. In the latter case (Ex. xxi. 9) he was to deal with them 
after the manner of daughters. 

In most of our slave states there is no recognition of the mar- 
riage relation among slaves, and consequently the family relation is 
utterly destroyed. Upon this point hear professor Stuart himself, 
when his conscience is aroused to the abominations of American 
slavery. He says, p. 104. 

[3 ] In this form of slavery, all the sacred social relations of life are de- 
stroyed. Husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, are not 



33 

known in law, nor protected nor cognized by it. In conformity with this 
these relations are every day severed by some slave-dealers, without regard to 
the feelings of the wretched beings who are torn asunder ; and all their pa- 
rental, conjugal, and filial sympathies are the subject of scorn if not of deris- 
ion. No invasion of human ricjhts can he v:orse titan this, none more directly 
opposed to the will of God, inscribed upon the pages of the Scripture, and on 
the very nature of mankind. 

[4.] As the inevitable consequence of this, the mass of slaves must live, and 
do live, in a virtual state of concubinage ; which, so far from being restrained, 
is often encouraged for the sake of increasing slave-property." 

^^ No invasion of human rights can be worse than this,'''' — and 
yet Mr. Stewart chastises those who declare that such a system 
should be immediately abolishedl ! 

5. Hebrew slaves were permitted to own some property, and if 
they or their friends could purchase their freedom, the master ivas 
hound by law to manumit them. The price also was fixed which 
the owner could not exceed. 

Compare with this the law of Louisiana : — 

" A slave is one who is in the power of his master to whom he belongs. 
The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and his labor. 
He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything but what belongs to 
his master." — [Civil Code of Louisiana.] 

But I need not pursue this contrast. It is sufficiently evident 
that instead of advancing upon the Hebrew system, we have retro- 
gaded with fearful velocity. Our system holds somewhat the same 
relation to that under Moses, that the present rude, unsightly, 
hideous idols of the heathen, hold to the elegant and graceful statu- 
ary, which were the objects of worship among the ancients. Yet 
Mr. Stuart cites the incident referred to in the legislation of Mo- 
ses, "as a precedent of frowning aspect on the heated rashness" 
of those who advocate the doctrine that this system of iniquity be 
immediately abolished. Is not that act of emancipation on the part 
of Moses, rather a precedent " of frowning aspect" upon the wicked 
resistance that is made by the South, to all efforts to improve the 
condition of their servants. 

Besides, when we consider how American slavery has increased 
under the doctrine of gradual emancipation, the number of slaves 
3* 



34 

being, in 1790 — 607,897, and in 1840 — 2,487,355— when Ave look 
at the intense zeal that is manifested by the South to extend the evil 
over soil that is noAv free ; when we read the Hon, Mr. Clay's com- 
promise bill, by which we must purchase the privilege of admitting 
free California, at such an enormous sacrifice of humanity, justice, 
and freedom, we are amazed that Professor Stuart should, with 
the Bible in his hand, fly to the assistance of those who a.re, by all 
the means in their power, laboring to strengthen and perpetuate 
this cruel system ! We are amazed at his readiness to censure such 
men as Judge Jay, the Hon. Messrs. Mann, Wilmot, and others, 
who are struggling to save California, New Mexico, and as much of 
Texas as possible, from the curse of American slavery. 

If my humble and feeble words can reach the ears of those noble 
men, in our national councils, the Hon. Horace Mann, the Hon. John 
P. Hale, the Hon. J. R. Giddings— the Hon. William H. Sew- 
ard, the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, and others, whose masterly argu- 
ments and stirring appeals have so often been heard in behalf of 
freedom, I would urge them to stand firm, — remembering that tens 
of thousands of hearts beat in sympathy with theirs, remembering 
that when they plead for the rights of man, for the claims of human- 
ity, for the eternal principles of justice, they have a nation of free- 
men for an audience, whose shouts of applause, could they reach 
them, would cause the very dome of the capitol to tremble. 



VI. THE BEARING OF THE OLD TESTAIMENT UPON THE 
FUGITIVE SLAVE QUESTION. 

We come now to a point of vital moment in our discussion, and 
one upon which our author dwells with much earnestness. As Mr. 
Webster has laid before us our constitutional obligations to recap- 
ture fugitives, Mr. Stuart has given us what he deems the scriptu- 
ral sanction for the same tl.ing. 

The passage which he examines is recorded in Deut. xxiii. 15. 16. 

"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from 
his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place 
which he shall choose, in one of thy gates, where it likethhini best ; thou shalt 
not oppress him." 



35 

His exegesis of it, is as follows, p. 30. 

" The first inquiry of course is : Where does his master live ? Among the 
Hebrews, or among foreigners ? The language of the passage fully develops 
this, and answers the question, " He has escaped from the master unto the 
Hebrews [the text says tliee, i. e. Israel] ; lie shall dwell with thee, even among 
you . . . in one of thy gates' Of course, then, he is an immigrant, and did not 
dwell among them before his flight. If he had been a Hebrew servant, belong- 
ing to a Hebrew, the whole face of the thing would be changed. Restoration, 
or restitution, if we may judge by the tenor of other property-laws among the 
Hebrews, would have surely been enjoined. But, be that as it may, the lan- 
guage of the text puts it beyond a doubt that the servant is a foreigner, and 
has fled from a heathen master. This entirely changes the comjilexion of the 
case." 

He then goes on to prove, that the fugitive in this case, was one 
from a foreign nation, and not one fleeing from one Hebrew tribe to 
another. 

In reference to a Hebrew servant of a Hebrew master he says, 
p. 37: 

" Who could take from him the property which the Mosaic law gave him a right 
to hold ? Neither the bondman himself, nor the neighbor of his master to 
whom the fugitive might come. Reclamation of him could be kncfully made, 
and therefore must be enforced." 

In order to place Mr. Stuart's reasoning before the reader in 
all its force, I will quote still further from pages 31, 32 : 

" With this view of the matter before us, how can we appeal to the passage 
in question to justify, yea, even to urge the retention of fugitive bond-men in 
our own country ? We are one nation — one so-called Christian nation." 

The Mosaic law does not authorize us to reject the claims of our fellow coun- 
ti-ymen and citizens, for strayed or stolen property — property authorized and 
guaranteed as such by Southern States to their respective citizens. These 
States are not heathen. We have acknowledged them as brethren, and felloio 
citizens of the great community. A fugitive from them Is not a fugitive from 
an idolatrous and polytheistic people. And even if the Bible had neither 
said nor Implied anything In relation to this whole matter, the solemn compact 
which we have made, before heaven and earth, to deliver up fugitives, when 
they are men held to service in the State from which they have fled, is enough 
to settle the question of legal right on the part of the master, whatever we may 
think of his claim when viewed in the light of Christianity." 



36 

If I understand Professor Stuart, (for I would remark that 
sometimes when men find that their arguments are unsound, or 
their reasoning fallacious, they are free to complain, that they are 
not understood, or that their language is perverted,) if then I un- 
derstand Professor Stuart, he labors to establish the following po- 
sitions : 1. That the passage of scripture, Deut. xxiii. 15, 16, 
quoted, applies only to fugitives from foreign nations. 2. That fu- 
gitives from one Hebrew tribe to another must be delivered up. 
" Reclamation of him could be lawfully made, and therefore must 
be enforced." 3. That we stand related to Southern slaves as the 
Hebrews of one tribe stood related to the slaves of another. 4. That 
we are bound on Mosaic authority to deliver up the fugitive to his 
Southern master. 5. That " even if the Bible had neither said nor 
implied anything in relation to this whole matter, the solemn compact 
that we have made, before heaven and earth, to deliver up fugitives 
when they are men held to service in the State from which they 
have fled, is enough to settle the question of legal right on the part 
of the master, ivliatever ive may think of Jus claim when viewed in 
the light of Christianity.^' 

I wish that the reader would carefully compare these five posi- 
tions with the quotations that I have made from the pamphlet ; or 
better, compare them with the pamphlet itself, that he may see 
whether I state the case correctly. 

Let us now subject them to an honest and critical examination. 

1. What are the evidences that the passage quoted (Deut. xxiii. 
15, 16,) applies only to fugitives from foreign nations. Mr. Stuart 
tells us that the evidences are in the structure of the passage — in 
the phraseology; that ^^ unto thee" means imto the Hebrews; and 
that " ever among you" implies that he did not dwell among them 
before his flight. But is this so clear ? May not the phrase with 
thee mean — with the individual, or family, to which the slave flees, 
as well as the Avhole Hebrew nation ? We find other passages 
where the pronoun has this singular as well as general meaning. 
But I Avill not press a different exegesis of the passage, particularly 
as the great majority of our ablest commentators regard the com- 
mand as applying to foreign fugitives. 

Still the spirit and influence of the passage, all must allow, are 



37 

decidedly hostile to the institution of slavery. An invitation is, in 
fact, given to slaves to escape to Palestine, as to an asylum of free- 
dom, where the laws of the land, strengthened by the authority of 
heaven, will be extended over them for their protection : " Tliou 
sJialt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped," &c. 
The command is imperative, absolute. He shall dwell with thee 
where it liketh him best — thou sliaJt not oppress him. Thus Moses 
designed that the country under his jurisdiction should be the refuge 
of the oppressed of all nations, and, by this law, and the seventh- 
year-emancipation law, he was, as rapidly as possible, making Pal- 
estine a free country. Had the Governor of California the power 
to enact a similar law in regard to fugitives, how long could slavery 
live in Texas or Louisiana ? 

But while most commentators regard the passage cited as apply- 
ing to foreign fugitives, others consider it as including all fugi- 
tives. President Wayland takes this latter view. He says, page 
59 of his letters to Dr. Fuller : 

"The Hebrews were not only positively forbidden to deliver up a slave who 
had escaped from his master, but were commanded to allow him to dwell in the 
place that he chose in any of the gates where it liked him best, [Deut. xxiii. 15, 
16,] ... . This precept, I think, clearly shows that Moses intended to abolish sla- 
very. How could slavery long continue in a country where every one was for- 
bidden to deliver up a fugitive slave? How different would be the condition of 
slaves, and how soon would slavery itself cease, were this the law of compulso- 
ry bondage among us." 

May we not infer, too, from the language used by the Congrega- 
tional Ministers of Massachusetts, in the series of strong anti-slavery 
resolutions passed at their last annual meeting, that they regard this 
law as of universal application. 

" It is as certain as any moral demonstration can be that except as a punish- 
ment for crime, the real genius, the true spirit of the Mosaic institutions is utter- 
ly repugnant and destructive to all slaveholding and slavery ! It is the spirit 
of UNIVERSAL FRKEDOM, and therefore the gcnius of universal emanci- 
pation." 

" Within the last quarter of a century, a new impulse has been given to 
freedom. State after State has published its testimony against the intolerable 
■wrong of slavery. ... He who shall defend it, defends that which Christendom 



38 

with concurrent voice has united to reprobate, and is hastening to destroy." 

" It well becomes the Convention of the Congregational ministers of this an- 
cient Commonwealth, solemnly to declare to the world their deep conviction 
of THE INJUSTICE AND INHUMANITY of the System of slavery, and of its 
absolute repugnance to all the principles of the word of God." 

Now these men, and others whom I might quote against Profes- 
sor Stuart's views, do not certainly belong to that rash and extrava- 
gant class to whom our author refers, and who he says " regard the 
great Jewish legislator as a very insignificant person." They are 
cool, discriminating. Christian men ; men who love the Bible, and 
who will adhere " to the law and the testimony," with as much 
tenacity as Professor Stuart. 

Nor is it necessary for our learned author to be so sensitive, 
as to the reputation of Moses, in the discussion of these points as he 
appears to be. He says, in referring to an opponent in another 
connection. " He will probably think very ill of Moses, and not be 
very courteous towards me, for venturing to quote him. However, 
if there is any blame here it falls on the great Jewish legislator and 
not on me." But if the great Jewish legislator is misquoted, or his 
language misapplied, where must the blame fall ? 

2. But I hasten to the second of the five propositions laid down — 
viz : That slaves fleeing from 07ie Hebrew tribe to another inust 
positivel// be delivered up. Upon what does our author base this 
opinion ? He says: if he had been a Hebrew servant, the whole 
face of the thing would be changed. Restoration or restitution, if 
ive may judge by the tenor of other property latvs among the He- 
brews, would have been surely enjoined." p. 30, quoted before. 

This is the foundation of his reasoning upon this point. On this 
he grounds our obligation to restore the fugitive from American sla- 
very. But has he nothing positive to bring forward — has he not 
one passage of scripture that enjoins this duty of restoring the He- 
brew fugitive ? Has Prof. Stuart, I would respectfully ask, stud- 
ied the Bible forty years without finding a single passage that re- 
quires the restoration of the Hebrew fugitive ? Are all his solemn 
exhortations to us, to deliver up the captive, based upon nothing 
but his judgment of the tenor of other property laws ? 

What are these other property laws ? Let us look into this matter. 



39 

On searching the Pentateuch I find (Deut. xxi. : 1-3) the fol- 
lowing property laws, to which, I presume, our author refers : 

" Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thy- 
self from them, thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. And 
if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt 
bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be Avith thee till thy brother seek it 
and thou shalt restore it to him again. 

In like manner shalt thou do with his ass ; and so shalt thou do with his 
raiment and all lost things of thy brother, which he hath lost and thou hast found 
thou shalt do likewise." 

Now if there are any stronger property laws than these, I should 
like to have them pointed out. Have we then, here, anything res- 
pecting fugitive slaves ? The only point at which slaves can be 
brought in, is under the head of " things." But were slaves, who 
were admitted to all the privileges of the Jewish faith, who were to 
be free in six years, who could own property, &c., things ? If the 
American system of slavery was the system now under consideration, 
the Professor might perhaps base an argument upon this passage 
that would be tolerably firm ; for our laws call slaves goods and 
chattels. The Constitution of South Carolina declares : 

" Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and adjudged in law to be 
chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their execu- 
tors and administrators, to all intents, constructions and purposes whatever." 

But in this case no exegetical skill, no straining or twisting of the 
language can make Hebrew slaves, things. Besides, the lawgiver 
had just been speaking of raiment, after speaking of beasts, and the 
natural expression would have been " things," or " anything else." 
Hebrew slaves then were not oxen, nor sheep, nor asses, nor rai- 
ment, nor things, and yet our author tells us the " restitution, if we 
may judge by the tenor of other property-laws, would have surely 
been enjoined." 

What evidence have we of it ? We call for proof. Those who 
believe that the Bible is opposed to slavery, and that Moses legis- 
lated against it call for proof ? 

The 3,000,000 of American slaves upon whom this question is 



40 

made to bear with fearful power, call for proof. Thej ask, and they 
ask too, not as theorists, not as mere disputants, not as cavillers, 
but as living and breathing men, who have a vital, absorbing, per- 
sonal interest in the question. They would like to know, too. whe- 
ther in their flight they are to be captured on Bible principles, or 
on U. S. Constitutional principles. They would like to know, 
whether, after passing all the dangers incident to an attempt to ob- 
tain their freedom, after getting beyond the reach of the Constitu- 
tion, they are liable to be taken by those who will seize them in the 
name of the Bible, and by the authority of Moses. 

If our author appears before us as the special protector of Mo- 
ses' reputation, we trust that he will not add to his burdens on this 
slavery question. It is true he did make laws to regulate the sys- 
tem, and he did allow the people to subject heathen slaves to a per- 
petual bondage, but before, I believe, that he commanded any fugi- 
tive to be restored, I should like to see the proof. 

And yet our author says — " Reclamation of him could be law- 
fidhj made, and therefore must be enforced." 

To borrow an expression from the professor, we must say to such 
conclusions from such premises, " Angels and ministers of grace de- 
fend us." 

But even allowing that Mr. Stuart is able to quote a strong and 
decisive law enacted by Moses, requiring that the Hebrew fugitive 
be delivered up, what bearing would that law have upon us, if cer- 
tain other principles, which he has laid down in other connections, 
are correct. 

In referring to the patriarchs, and elswhere to the Mosaic institu- 
tions, he says, p. 25 : 

" I shall enter Into no argument here in defence of the patriarchs, as to the 
usaofes now in question. In one sense they do not concern us, for the blessed 
God, by his gospel, having scattered the darkness of early ages, has made us to 
walk in the clear light of the Sun of Righteousness." 

And on the next page he says : 

" But Abraham and the other patriarchs lacked our light. If they had pos- 
sessed it, there cannot be a doubt that they would have followed its guidance, 
and rejoiced in it. Noble traits of character they had, but it needs the blessed 



41 

gospel of God to make men * perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good 
work.' What Christ has commanded is our rule, and not what the patriarchs 
did, who lived when the light was just beginning to dawn. 

" What Christ has commanded is our rule !" What then have 
we to do with the " restoration" laws of Moses, even had he enacted 
any? 

3. We now come to the third of the five points, which Mr. 
Stuart endeavors to sustain in relation to the question before us. 
This point is, that we stand related to Southern slavery, as the He- 
brews of one tribe stood related to the slavery of another tribe, and 
that on this ground, we ought to deliver up the fugitive. " Are our 
brethren at the South, heathen ? " asks the Professor. I answer 
no. There are many devoted Christians there, — there are kind 
hearts there, noble and conscientious men there ; but their system 
of slavery is heathenish. Professor Stuart himself being the judge. 
Compare the laws of South Carolina, Georgia and other slave States 
with the laws of Moses. I have already quoted some of those laws, 
and exhibited, to some extent, the contrast. But I may be asked, 
is it not too strong an expression to call this system heathenish ? I 
would reply, if Southern defenders of Slavery call it thus, I trust 
that I shall be excused for believing what they say. Hear, then, 
the testimony from the Court of South Carolina. 

" The condition of slaves in this country is analogous to that of the ancient 
Greeks and Romans, and not that of the feudal times. They are generally 
considered not as persons, but as things. They can be sold or transferred as 
goods or personal estate ; they are held to be pro nullis, pro mortuis. By the 
civil law, slaves could not take property by descent or purchase ; and I appre- 
hend this to be the law of this country." — Dess. Hep. IV, 266. South Caro- 
lina. 

Let me now develop more fully the Greek and Roman system, to 
which our system, according to the declaration of the Court of South 
Carolina, (good authority on this point) is analogous, Home, in his 
" Introduction to the study of the Scriptures," in quoting from 
Taylor's elements of the Roman Civil Law, remarks, vol. 2, p. 166 : 
"Among the Romans more particularly, slaves were held — pv nullis 

— p'o mortuis — pro quadrupedibus — for no men — for dead men 

— for beasts ; nay, were in a much worse state than any cattle 

4 



42 

whatever. They had no head in the State, no name, no tribe, or re- 
gister. . . . Exclusive of what was called their speculum, what- 
ever they acquired was their master's ; they could neither plead nor 
be pleaded, but were entirely excluded from all civil concerns. 
They were not entitled to the rights of matrimony, and therefore 
had no relief in case of adultery. They might be sold, transferred 
or pawned like other goods or personal estate." 

From Adam's Roman Antiquities, we learn that Roman masters 
had absolute power over their slaves, and might scourge them, or 
put them to death at pleasure. This right was exercised with such 
cruelty, at some periods of the republic, that laws were enacted 
at different times to restrain it. The lash was commonly used 
for punishment, but for certain crimes slaves were branded 
on the forehead. Sometimes they were forced to carry a piece 
of wood around their necks, wherever they went, which was 
called /i«ra. When slaves were beaten, they were suspended with 
a weight tied to their feet, that they might not move them. When 
they suffered capital punishment, they were usually crucified, though 
this punishment was prohibited under Constantine. If a master 
was slain in his own house, and the murderer not discovered, all his 
domestic servants were liable to be put to death. In a single in- 
stance of this character, 400 were destroyed. (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 43.) 

Slaves could not appear as witnesses in a Court of Justice, nor 
make a will, nor inherit property. In short, they were robbed of 
aU their rights, and were oftentimes treated far worse than the beasts 
around them. Prof. B. B. Edwards, of Andover, one of our most 
accomplished and accurate scholars, in an article on " Roman 
Slavery," published in the Bibhcal Repository, Oct. 1835, remarks : 

" The groans from the ergastula do not reach our ears. We cannot gather 
up the tears which were shed on the Appian way, around the mausoleum of 
Augustus, on the countless farms of Italy. There were griefs that we know 
not of, sorrows, heart-rending cruelties, which will not be revealed till the day 
of doom. Slaves were valued only so far as they represented money. Hor- 
tensius cared less for the health of his slaves than for that of his fish. It was 
a question put for ingenious disputation, whether in order to lighten a vessel in 
a storm we should sacrifice a valuable horse or a worthless slave. So late as 
the reign of Adrian, we find that indications of insanity were not uncommon 
among slaves, which must generally be attributed to their misery." 



43 

Yet this is the system to which the Courts of South Carohna say 
our system is analogous. Let the reader take notice that I do not 
say it, for that would at once be pronounced abuse and slander ; 
but South Carolina says it herself. Indeed, there is no slave State 
in this Union that pretends that its system of slavery is like the 
Jewish system, Mr. Stuart may, indeed, say that the analogy to 
which he refers relates to masters, and not to the slaves. But in 
order that this reasoning may hold good, the two systems of slavery, 
Hebrew and American, 7nust be similar. If the Hebrew fugitive 
was restored to his master, (of which fact, however, we have not 
yet received a particle of proof) the ground of such restoration 
must have been the mildness of their system of slavery, and the 
equal religious privileges that the slave enjoyed with his master. 
In these respects, every one knows that our system differs materially 
from the Hebrew system. 

But let us now hear Prof. Stuart himself, respecting American 
slavery. Let us see what he thinks of the system, to the blighting 
and blasting influence of which, he feels conscientiously bound, on 
Bible authority, to restore the panting and trembling fugitive. 

He says, page 104, — 

" (2) As existing among us, slavery has taken its worst form ; it degrades 
men made in the image of their God and Redeemer, into brute-beasts, or 
(which makes them still lower) converts them into mere goods and chattels." 

Can any language be stronger than this ? 
Again : 

" (7) Slavery in its be'st attitude in our country, even among humane and 
Christian masters, is a degradation of a whole class of the community, below 
their proper rank as men. Even where the colored men are free, and educa- 
ted, and well-behaved, they are considered as unworthy of any civil considera- 
tion. They cannot become citizens, in a slave-holding State. No civil, no pa- 
triotic sympathies, can be theirs. " Stand by thyself, for I am holier than thou," 
is the universal answer to all aspirations after citizenship. And this is not all. 
They are degraded in their own eyes. They are discouraged from all attempts 
to rise, by a knowledge of the utter impossibility of rising. What were the 
whole Greek nation, a few years ago, when under the domination of the 
Turks ? Just what every people will be, who have masters over them, and 
who are denied their political and civil rights. 



44 

"Where now did one class of our race obtain a license to keep down and de- 
grade another, when ' there is one and the same God of the Jews and the 
Gentiles ? ' And how will they answer before the tribunal above, on which 
that God sits, who is no respecter of persons ? " 

Here I give but two specifications of the nature and evils of 
Southern slavery, out of ten that the Professor has brought forward, 
and yet because he infers "from the tenor of other property laws," 
that the Hebrew fugitive was restored, he gravely argues that we 
are bound to deliver up the American fugitive. Upon a simple in- 
ference he bases our obligation ; an inference which, though resting 
upon sufficient grounds, would not apply to American slavery, as we 
have most abundantly shown. 

4. The fourth point is that we are positively/ bound on Mosaic 
authority to deliver up the fugitive to his Southern master. 

Now if all the three foregoing points had been established by our 
author, still he could not quote Mosaic authority or Hebrew usage 
to govern us, because he has repeatedly admitted, that we, being 
under the Christian dispensation, are not to be governed by the Pa- 
triarchal or Mosaic systems. " What Christ has commanded is our 
law," he says. And again, in another connection, he has said, in 
relation to buying slaves, and if his reasoning applies to this, it 
applies to other points : — 

" At all events, none can reason from the case of the Jews — the one favor 
ed, pre-eminent, secluded nation — to the case of men, who lived after the 
coming of Him, " who broke down the middle wall of partition between Jews 
and Gentiles," proclaimed one common God and Father of all ; one common 
Redeemer and Sanctifier; that this God is no respecter of persons; and that 
' he has made of one blood, all the nations that dwell on the face of the earth.' 
— I say none can now crave liberty to purchase slaves of the Gentiles or Jews, 
on the ground of Mosaic permission. Pie might as well insist on the liberty of 
polygamy and concubinage, both of which Moses allowed — I cannot say en- 
couraged, for evidently this is not the case. He allowed it for the same reason 
that he allowed divorce at the will of the husband. Our Saviour has told us 
what this reason was, viz : " The hardness of their hearts." The light of the 
gospel dissipates all these deeds done in claro-obscure light. All reasoning of 
this kind is null, if it he at variance toith the spirit and precepts of the (jospel ; 
which is now our supreme law" 



45 

I would direct special attention to this last clause. Even there- 
fore, admitting that the Jewish legislator did institute a law requiring 
the restoration of the Hebrew fugitive, which we deny; even admit- 
ing that Southern slavery is like Hebrew slavery, which the South- 
ern statesmen and jurists themselves deny, and Professor Stuart 
himself denies (for he says that slavery among us has taken its 
ivont form) — still on the principle just quoted, we have no right to 
" reason from the case of the Jews " to ourselves, who have the 
gospel " wJiich is now our Supreme law^ 

To attempt to make this plainer would be like endeavoring to add 
light to the sun. 

5. I pass, to consider the last point, which requires us to deliver 
up the fugitive to his master, on constitutional grounds, " whatever 
we may think of his (the master's) claim, when viewed in the light 
of Christianity." 

The bearing of the Constitution of the United States on this 
question we shall fully consider under another head. 

If we understand our author, he tells us (see 5th specification ia 
full) that we are legally bound to deliver up the fugitive, even in 
opposition to the light of Christianity. That is, he places the Con- 
stitution and civil law above Christianity. If his words mean any 
thing, this is his doctrine — a doctrine which, to receive from such 
a source, chills my very blood. Had such a sentiment come to us 
from the pen of a Southern clergyman, whose zeal for slavery had 
betrayed him into the utterance of so rash and revolting a doctrine, 
we could have borne it. But to receive it from one whose name is 
identified with the Biblical literature of our nation ; one, who in 
times of peril has been the able and successful defender of our com- 
mon faith; one, of whose reputation we have been proud, and 
whom, to the very last hours of his useful life, we should have de- 
lighted to honor, this is, indeed, a severe and heavy blow. 

But perhaps I hear the voice of our author saying, " meet me 
with argument, not emotion." 

Let us examine, then, the principle laid down. If it is under 

any circumstances justifiable for one, when the civil law comes in 

conflict with God's law, to " obey God rather than man," it would 

seem to me, the case before us is such a case. Here is, we 

4* 



46 

will suppose, a conscientious Christian who has studied, seriously 
and profoundly, the Bible, and derived from this standard his views 
of the rights of man. He holds these truths, not only to be scrip- 
tural, but, according to the language of our " Declaration of Inde- 
pendence," to be " self-evident, that all men are created equal, that 
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; 
that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

These truths have taken strong hold not only of his heart, but of 
his reason, his sense of justice and right. He could not himself 
traffic in human beings, in men made in God's image, endowed with 
an intellectual and immortal nature, 

" For all the wealth 
That sinews bought and sold have ever earned." 

He therefore refuses to deliver up the fugitive on conscientious 
grounds. Shall he be sustained ? This is the question. Humanity, 
indeed, answers yes. Tens of thousands in the Northern and 
Western States thunder out. Yes. But will the Bible sustain him ? 
Or as Professor Stuart places the question, shall he in this instance 
obey the gospel, or the civil law. 

That there are cases in which it is right to set aside, and even 
resist civil authority, I think that all Christians will allow. When 
the apostles were forbidden to preach in the name of Christ, and 
were summoned before the council, and required to answer to the 
charges brought against them, Peter and the other Apostles answer- 
ed and said, " We ought to obey God rather than men." Acts v. 29. 

In regard to the duties that we owe to civil rulers, the Bible is 
more full and exphcit than in regard to duties between the master 
and the slave. Paul says, Romans xiii. 1,2; " Let every soul be 
subject unto the higher powers ; for there is no power but of God. 
The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore re- 
sisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they that 
resist shall receive to themselves damnation." And in the 5th verse, 
" Wherefore he must needs be subject, not only for wrath (i. e. not 
only from fear of punishment) but also for conscience sake." 

This was written in the time of the despotic and cruel Nero, and 
has been quoted from that day to this, by tyrants, to sustain them- 



4T 

selves in their despotism. But did the signers to our Declaration of 
Independence — did the fathers of this great Republic subscribe to 
the doctrine, that the most obvious interpretation of the passage 
seems to teach ? Did they beheve that it was their duty to support 
a government that robbed them of their rights, that defeated the 
great designs for which government is estabhshed ? In their Decla- 
ration of Independence, just quoted, they say " that when any form of 
government becomes destructive of these ends," (that is, of the rights 
and happiness of the governed,) it is the right of the people to alter 
or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its founda- 
tions in such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to 
them shall seem most likely to eflfect their safety and happiness." 

While, therefore, they recognized the general obligations that 
mankind are under, to submit to, and obey their rulers, they did not 
believe that bad institutions ought to be perpetuated, or that they 
were called upon to bow to the sceptres of tyrants. The Rev. James 
Macknight, D. D., in his Commentary on the Apostolic Epistles, 
remarks upon the 5th verse of the 13th chapter of Romans, just quot- 
ed, as follows : " By the phrase, ' It is necessary for you to be sub- 
ject, the apostle did not mean, that they were to be subject to the 
sinful laws of the countries where the}'- lived ; otherwise he made it 
necessary for the Roman brethren to join in the worship of idols, 
contrary to the superior obligation they were under, of obeying 
God rather than man. Besides, by telling them that they were to 
be subject on account of conscience, he intimated that the subjection 
which he enjoined did not extend to things sinful." 

But will Professor Stuart take the ground that the civil laws are 
in no case to be disobeyed, even when they are in conflict with the 
principles of Christianity. Let us hear him when his conscience is 
aroused, upon a single evil of slavery. In his ten specifications of 
these evils, (p. 104 — 107,) he alludes to the laws of the South 
respecting the non-education of slaves, and what does he say ? 

" (5-) Ignorance profound, and nearly universal, is the inevitable lot of tlie 
great mass of all who are held in bondage. In some of the States, the learn- 
ing even to read is forbidden ; thus contravening, with a high hand, the com- 
mand of Heaven to ' search the Scriptures.' In such a case, obedience to a 
human law is crime ; it is treason against the Majesty of heaven and earth." 



48 

Here then we have it. The Professor admits that there is a case 
in which ^'obedience to a human law is crime; it is treason 

AGAINST THE MAJESTY OF HEAVEN AND EARTH." 

If now a person may violate one, out of ten laws, touching this 
wicked sjstem of slavery, may not a conscientious person refuse to 
put back a fugitive, where he will suffer the evils of the whole ten 9 

If Mr. Stuart would encourage the slave to learn to read, on the 
ground that " obedience to a human law," the law of South Caroli- 
na, '' is a crime," on the ground that " it is treason against the ma- 
jesty of earth and heaven," may not another, on the same ground, 
refuse to restore the fugitive to a position where he will not only be 
deprived of the privileges of education, but where he will be sub- 
ject to the whole catalogue of fearful evils, that slavery in " its 
ivorst form " must bring upon him ? 

If Mr. Stuart is so conscientious with reference to one of his ten 
specifications, may not others have some conscientiousness with re- 
ference to the whole ? May they not feel that to bind chains upon 
men, when they have once broken them, — chains that " degrade 
them into brute beasts," and " convert them into goods and 
chattels," is, in this day of light, and this land of freedom, " treason 
against the majesty of heaven and earth." 

Mr. Stuart's positions, then, himself being the judge, cannot be 
sustained. Indeed, his whole argument on this question is so weak 
— its fallacy is so obvious, that it needs simply to be stated, in order 
to be overthrown. It crumbles under a simple touch. And yet, 
several of our religious papers — to their shame be it spoken — are 
extolling this Scriptural argument, and seem to imagine that the 
Professor has settled the question beyond all dispute. The New 
York Observer, in a notice of this pamphlet, in the paper of July 
6th, says : " Professor Stuart, of Andover, has rendered a good 
service to the country in his recent work, entitled ' Conscience and 
the Constitution,' by a fair exposition of the subject of slavery, as 
it existed among the Hebrews, in Old Testament times." The 
editors then quote the comments of the Professor upon the passage 
relating to fugitive slaves, " to show," they say, " the error of those 
who regard this passage as opposed to the Constitution of the United 
States." 



49 



Can we wonder that the abominable system of American slavery 
continues to curse this nation, when such divines, and such religious 
newspapers, sustain it by so gross a perversion of the word of 
God ? I do not hesitate to declare that, to quote the legislative acts 
of Moses, to sustain this system of slavery, is a libel upon the great 
Jewish lawgiver, and an insult to the Divine Author of the Scriptures. 



VII. THE PROPHETS AND SLAVERY. 

Before leaving the Old Testament, there is one passage in the 
prophecy of Isaiah, upon which our author remarks, and which is 
worthy of our attention, as it affords evidence of the progress, that 
light and knowledge had made among the people, in the times of the 
prophets, and of the bolder and more decided tone which the mes- 
sengers of God used in condemning prevailing sins. 

The passage is in Isaiah Iviii. 6, " Is not this the fast that I have 
chosen ? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy bur- 
dens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every 
yoke ? " 

Of all the prophetic texts, the Professor tells us, this has been 
appealed to most frequently and confidently by the opponents of 
slavery. This, in his view, has been their great battle-axe, with 
which they have labored to demolish the citadel of slavery. As the 
great expounder of the Scriptures, he comes upon the field to break 
in pieces this weapon. Let us see how he accomplishes his purpose. 

I quote all that he says upon the passage, that the reader may 
feel the full force of his reasoning: : 

" Of all the prophetic texts, I believe Is. Iviii. 6 has been the subject of ap- 
peal most frequent, and confident too. What says it ? ' Loose the bands of 
■wickedness ; undo the heavy burdens •, let the oppressed go free ; break every 
yoke.' The prophet further enjoins, that they shall give bread to the hungry, 
house-shelter to poor wanderers, and clothing to the naked. He then adds : 
* Hi'de not thyself from thy own flesh: And who, then, are they that are thus 
described ? Plainly, fellow-countrymen, citizens of the same commonwealth, and 
kindred by Hood. Let the reader, If he doubts this Interpretation of the ex- 
pression one's oion flesh, open his Bible at Gen. xxix. 14 ; 2 Sam. v. 1, xlx. 13, 
14 ; Judg. Ix. 2. It is clearly the oppressed and degraded Hebrews, then, of 



50 

"wliom the prophet Is speaking in this whole passage. It has no special relation 
to slaves at all, whether heathen or Jewish. Surely heathen slaves would not 
be called, by Isaiah, the ' own flesh' of the Hebrews. Yet this passage is print- 
ed in staring capitals every day, as the sentence of an ultimate and supreme 
tribunal, which decides the cause of the Abolitionists In their favor." 

What, then, have we here in the way of exegesis ? An anomaly, 
at least, all the critics will allow. We have a professed interpreta- 
tion of a passage, where not one word, one salable, one letter, of the 
interpretation bears upon the passage in question. The comments 
are made upon the verse that follows, which alludes to another and 
distinct class of persons, namely, the poor and destitute ; and the 
conclusion is falsely applied to both verses. 

I will give the following verse, (6th,) that we may compare the two : 

" It Is not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor, that 
are cast out, to thy house ? — when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him ; 
and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? " 

In this verse we see most clearly that the hungry, the poor, and 
naked are referred to, who have claims upon our cojnjjassion, while 
in the preceding verse the oppressed, those in bondage, are spoken 
of, who have claims upon our justice. The two classes are entirely 
distinct. The first are slaves. The second are the poor, including 
one's poor relatives, " kindred by blood." Yet because the prophet 
exhorts the people, (after he had closed his exhortation respect- 
ing slaves,) " to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and not 
even hide themselves from their own flesh," the Professor gravely 
asks us if slaves are " kindred by blood?" "Surely heathen 
slaves would not be called by Isaiah, the ' own flesh ' of the He- 
brews ! " And pray who has said they were thus called? Why 
does Mr. Stuart leave the verse, and carry the field of argument 
down to the latter clause of the following verse, which has no more 
bearing on the point in question, than the close of one of the com- 
mandments, has upon the preceding commandment. 

The simple question is to whom does the prophet refer when he 
says, " Loose the bands of wickedness — let the oppressed go free 
— break every yoke." The phrase, " To loose the bands of wick- 
edness," had probably a general signification, and required that 
every unjust tie, by which the people had bound their fellow-men, 



51 

should be broken. The meaning of the phrase " and let the op- 
pressed go free," is so obvious that it scarcely needs an explanation 
or defense. Yet to place the matter beyond all doubt, let me quote 
a few authorities upon it. The Rev. Albert Barnes, in his learned 
and critical Commentary upon the book of Isaiah, remarks on this 
phrase, v. 3, p. 556, " It may be appUed to those who are treated 
with violence in any way, or who are oppressed and broken down by 
hard usage. It may refer, therefore, to slaves who are oppressed 
by bondage and toil ; or to inferiors of any kind, who are subjected 
to hard usage by those who are above them. The use of the phrase 
here, ' go free ; ' however, seems to limit its application in this place, 
to those who were held in bondage." 

Jerome renders it, " Free those who are broken," the word broken 
being a more literal translation of the original Hebrew word. 

The LXX. give this rendering " set at liberty those who are 
broken down." " The expression refers to those who were held in 
oppressive bondage, and doubtless relates to those who were kept as 
slaves." Mr. Barnes devotes six pages of his commentary to the 
consideration of this single verse ; in which he goes into a full ac- 
count of slavery as it existed in the time of Moses, and clearly 
proves that this passage relates to slaves, as well as to other op- 
pressed persons. 

Dr. Alexander, of Princeton, in his late able commentary upon 
Isaiah, remarks upon this passage, as follows : 

" Most interpreters suppose a particular allusion to the detention of He- 
brew servants, after the seventh year, contrary to the express provisions of the 
law. (Ex. xxi 2; Lev. xxv. 39; Deut. xv. 12.) Grocius applies the term in 

a figurative sense to judicial oppression It is evident, however, 

that the terms were so selected as to be descriptive of oppression universally, io 
make which still more evident, the Prophet adds a general command or exhor- 
tation, ' Ye shall break every yoke.^ " 

The learned and pious Mathew Henry, in commenting on the 
passage says, '• Not only let those who are wrongfully kept under 
the yoke go free, but brake the yoke of slavery itself, that it may not 
serve again another time, nor any be made again to serve under it." 

But we may be told, that, at that time, it was lawful to hold slaves, 
and where was the propriety in exhorting the masters to let them 



52 

go free ? Might not, I would ask, the prophets use all the moral 
means within their power, — use arguments and persuasion, to induce 
the people to abandon the sin of slavery, though it was permitted ? 

Indeed the prophets were accustomed to rebuke severely, the 
people for sins that the civil law permitted, and by means of this 
and other measures, some of these evils were greatly mitigated before 
the advent of Christ. Take for instance the solemn expostulation, 
in reference to divorce and polygamy recorded in Malachi ii. 15, 
16 : " Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treach- 
erously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of 
Israel, saith,that he hateth putting away : for one covereth violence 
■with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts : therefore take heed to 
your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously." 

Were I in a city where it was lawful for men to deal in intoxicat- 
ing drinks, might I not use persuasion and moral means, to induce 
these dealers to abandon their traffic ? Might I not say to them as 
from God, " Is not this the fast, or the religion that I have chosen, 
that ye give up this destructive business, that ye cease to do evil? " 
Mere forms will avail nothing before Him " who searcheth the heart." 

Besides, the phrase in the following verse, "And that thou 
hide not thyself from thine own flesh," in a distinct exhortation, 
even from the other part of the verse. Mr. Barnes thus remarks 
upon it : — " To hide one's self from them may be denoted either, 
(1) To be ashamed of them on account of their poverty, or their 
humble rank in life ; or (2) to withhold from them the just supply 
of their wants. Rehgion requires us to treat all our kindred, 
whatever may be their rank in life, with kindness and affection." 

Why Professor Stuart should present us with such a commentary 
upon his passage, I am at a loss to determine. If this exegesis is one 
of his Paixhan guns, of which he speaks, we have no occasion to cry, 
" Angels and ministers of grace defend us," for we can defend our- 
selves. 

But seriously, it is a grave and solemn matter for a conscientious 
Christian and eminent Biblical scholar, to attempt to wrest this pas- 
sage out of the hands of the opponents of slavery, by such means 
as he has employed. 

There is little probability, however, that these opponents will 



63 

nor will they cease from printing it in " staring capitals," unless 
the Professor appears with some weightier arguments against it than 
those which he has produced. 

Docs not such reasoning however, as the pamphlet before us con- 
tains, tend to bring the Scriptures into contempt in the eyes of a 
large class of persons, who with some humanity, have but little rev- 
erence for the Bible, or respect for its authority. Does it not also 
strengthen those who while pleading for the slave, have already de- 
nounced the Scriptures, and wickedly trampled under their feet, 
this sacred volume. 

Professor Stuart in his pamphlet (pp. 40, 41,) administers what 
he doubtless regards as a very severe chastisement to some corres- 
pondent of a newspaper, who signs himself Ariel, for misapplying 
scripture phrases in his love for the slave. The Professor says of 
him : 

" I suppose, by his frequent appeals to the Scriptures, that he may be a 
minister of the Gospel. If so, I can only condole with his people, that they 
have not a more discriminating guide to lead them to a right knowledge of the 
meanin<T of the Scriptures. If the quotations above, and the construction put 
upon them, do not show him to be a mere sciohst in the knowledge of the Bible. 
it would be difficult to say what could exhibit proofs of such a predicament. I 
add only, that the last three texts above are printed in staring capitals ; why, 
I know not, unless it be to proclaim to the world what a capital exegcte he is." 

May I not condole with the readers of Mr. Stuart's pamphlet 
" that they have not a more discriminating guide, to lead them to a 
right knowledge of the Scriptures,''^ 



Vin. — THE BEARING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT UPON 

SLAVERY. 

We now approach a department of our subject, which, to the sin- 
cere Christian, is one of deep interest. We come to sit at the feet 
of the Great Teacher, in obedience to the command — " Learn of 
me." We come not as cavillers, not as partisans, not to pervert or 
misapply the words of " Him who spake as never man spake," but 
to listen, with an humble spirit, to his instructions. And while, as 
5 



54 

disciples, we would be " clothed with humiUtj," as the defenders of 
the great principles which we may be taught, we would '■'■put on 
the whole armor of God^'' and maintain with invincible firmness, the 
positions in which Christ may place us. We would stand, " having 
our loins girt about with truth." 

Mr. Stuart, in the fourteen pages (43-56) that he devotes to 
this branch of the subject, considers the conduct of Christ, with 
reference to the civil government of the Jews, and the directions of 
the Apostles, that were given to masters and slaves, respecting 
their duties one towards another. He allows that the Gospel em- 
braces principles, the operation of which will gradually abolish 
slavery ; but, from the course pursued by Christ and his Apostles, 
he argues with no little zeal, against those who, at this day advocate 
the doctrine of immediate emancipation. 

In speaking of Christ, he shows, what we readily allow, and what 
we would ourselves insist upon, — that the Saviour's object in in- 
structing his disciples, was, to lay down general principles applica- 
ble to all the relations of life, rather than give specific directions in 
relation to specific evils. Had he violently assailed those sins that 
were interwoven with the social habits and civil institutions of the 
Hebrews, he would, among those " Scribes, Pharisees, and hypo- 
crites," — those " whited sepulchres," who would neither listen to 
argument or persuasion, have raised a storm about him that would 
have utterly defeated his plans. We find him, therefore, saying 
little about the despotism of the Roman rulers, the system of slavery 
that prevailed, the desecration of the Sabbath, and other specific 
sins ; but he places before the consciences of the world, great prin- 
ciples of truth, duty, and benevolence, that are designed to over, 
throw every despot, break every chain, and restore to every man 
his rights. Some of these principles we will now consider in con. 
nection with Mr. Stuart's examination of those passages in the epis- 
tles to the Ephesians, Colossians, &c., which slaveholders are so 
fond of reading to their slaves, and which afibrd to the conscien. 
tious slaveholder so many excuses for his sins. Among them are 
the following. Let us begin with Paul. The first passage I shall 
quote, is Eph. vi. 5-9 : 



i)0 

(5) Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters accordinf^ to the 
flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ : (6) 
Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but as the servants of Christ, doin^ the 
will of God from the heart; (7) With good will doing service, as to the Lord, 
not to men ; (8) Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the 
same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free, (d) And, 
ye, masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatenlno- : knowintv 
that your Master also is In heaven; neither Is thei-e respect of persons with him. 

The Epheslan church was riot the onlj one to whom Paul preach- 
ed after the same tenor, in regard to slavery. To the Collossians 
(iii. 22-25) and iv. 1 he says : 

C22J Servants, obey In all things your masters according to the flesh ; not 
with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but In singleness of heart, fearing 
God ; C23J And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto 
men; C24^ Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the In- 
heritance : for ye serve the Lord Christ. C25) But he that doeth wron<T, shall 
receive for the wrong which he has done : and there is no respect of persons. 
(iv. I) Masters, give unto your servants that which Is just and equal : know- 
ing that ye also have a Master in heaven. 

The other passages, 1 Tim. vi. 1-4, Epistle to Titus, ii. 9, 10, 1 
Peter, ii. 18, &c., are of the same import as those already quoted. 
That these injunctions require that the slave be obedient and re- 
spectful to his master, is obvious to every reader. But it is equally 
obvious from the whole tenor of the New Testament, that we may 
receive directions how to act under certain circumstances, while 
great guilt may rest upon the party towards whom we are com- 
manded to exercise forbearance or obedience. Christ saj^s, Matt, 
v. 44, " Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to 
them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you 
and persecute you." But does this command justify others in being 
our enemies, in hating us, in despitefully using us, in persecuting us ? 

Can the persecutor persist in his persecution on the ground that 
the duties of his victims are enjoined by divine authority ? Christ 
also says [v. 39,] "whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn 
to him the other also." But will obedience to this law justify the 
smiter ? So of other commands, — " If any man will sue thee at the 
law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." " Who- 
soever shall compell thee to go a mile, go Avith him twain." 



56 

The soldier is commanded to be content with his wages, but shall 
we from this say that Christianity justifies war. Suppose upon this, 
and other incidental allusions to war, we should build up an argu- 
ment in favor of this sin, how would it stand by the side of 
the command, " I say unto you, love your enemies ? " Or should 
we build up an argument in favor of slavery, on the prescribed 
duties of the slave, how would this stand by the side of the com- 
mand, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself? " 

There is one passage, upon which our author offers extended crit- 
ical remarks, which deserves a moment's attention. The whole pas- 
sage [in 1 Cor. vii. 20--2-i : page 52,] is as follows : 

f 2o) Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. (2\) 
Art thou called being a servant ? care not for it ; but, if thou mayest be made 
free, use it rather. (22) For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is 
the Lord's freeman : likewise, also, he that is called, being free, is Christ's ser" 
vant. (23) Ye are bought with a price; be not ye servants of men. (24) 
Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. 

Upon this Mr. Stuart remarks : 

" When Paul wrote this, he had just been discussing the question whether 
circumcision or uncircumcision was of any consequence. He says it is of no 
consequence, so that no one need pay the least attention to it. * « * * 
But in passing from this matter to the consideration of slavery and freedom, 
Paul applies the same command or sentiment. He tells servants, that if they 
are called to be the Lord's freemen, while in a state of civil bondage, they need 
not have any solicitude about the matter — fi-^ aoi (ieMto, do not care for it. 
If I dared to degrade Paul's pure and sober diction, by translating it into our 
vulgar and colloquial dialect, I might exactly and faithfully give the real senti- 
ment of the original, thus : " Do not make a fuss about it." This is advice, 
which is not listened to as the eternal din and commotion on all sides, made by 
those who are neither slaves, nor in danger of becoming so, abundantly show. 
The advice is as completely ignored, as if it had never been uttered." 

Here our author entirely fails in giving the spirit of the apostle's 
language, and grossly misapplies it, (as he does in the phrase ,"»] aoi 
fxeUto^ on the fourth page) to those who are anxious that i\.meri' 
can slavery be abolished. While Paul was writing this, his object 
was to impress the Christian converts with the insignificance of all 
worldly interests and circumstances, compared with the blessedness 



67 

of salvation through Christ. He had just been saying that circum- 
cision was nothing, and then he adds, that even if one is in bond- 
age, he need not be anxious or soUcitous about it, as he is the Lord's 
freeman, (or more properly freedman,) and has a title to the rich 
rewards of another life. The " vulgar and colloquial dialect," used 
by our author as expressive of the original, " Do not make a 
fuss about it," does not give the meaning. 

The primary meaning of the verb is " to care for," " to be con- 
cerned about," and is here used in the sense of anxiety or soUcitude. 
We do not believe that the apostle intended to impress those in 
bondage with the idea that they were suffering under a trivial evil, 
but simply, that in comparison with the riches of being redeemed by 
the blood of Christ, it was trivial. That Paul did not regard slavery 
as a light matter, or one not " to make a fuss about," we shall soon 
most abundantly show, from a passage in his first epistle to Timothy 
which the Professor, I think, does not quote. In this connection 
he views it in somewhat the same light, in which he regarded his 
severe sufferings under a relentless persecution, when he said, 
" For our light affliction, which is hut for a moment, worketh 
out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." In 
this view of the passage, I am abundantly sustained by the ablest 
commentators. 

Let me give the reader Dr. Macknight's paraphrase of it, that he 
may compare its tone and spirit with the Professor's exegesis — 
(1 Cor., vii. 20--22.) 

He says, (20) " Since the gospel makes no alteration in men's 
political state, let every Christian remain in the same political 
state in which he was called, (21.) Agreeable to this rule, 
Wast thou called, being a bondman ? Be not solicitous to be made 
free, fancying that a bondman is less the object of God's favor than 
a free man. Yet, if thou canst ever he made free, by any lawful 
method, rather obtain thy freedom. (22) But if disappointed 
grieve not ; for a bondman who is called by the Lord, possesses the 
greatest of all dignities : he is the Lord's freedman, being delivered 
by him from the slavery of sin." 

The same view substantially, is taken by Bloomfield, Doddridge, 
Prof. B. B. Edwards, and other able commentators. Doddridge says: 
5* 



58 

" If liberty itself, tlie first of all temporal blessings, be not of so great import- 
ance, as that a man blessed with the high hopes and glorious consolation of 
Christianity, should make himself verysolicitous about it, how much less is there 
in those comparatively trifling distinctions, on which so many lay so extrava- 
gant a stress." 

But the application that our author makes of a portion of this 
passage, " Do not care for it," to those who are concerned about 
the evils of slavery, " who are neither slaves, (themselves) nor in 
danger of becoming so," is particularly unfortunate ; as he has him- 
self, in the latter part of his pamj; hlet, presented a view of the abomi- 
nations of this institution, that ought to arouse the whole nation. 

After completing the fifth specification, he says : 

" (6) The inevitable consequence of all this is, that the young females, igno- 
rant and without a sense of delicacy implanted and cherished, are at the mercy 
of their masters, young and old. And although the accusation of universal pol- 
lution among the masters of the South is far from being true, yet one cannot 
walk the streets of any large town or city in a slaveholding State, without see- 
ing such a multitude of mulattos, mestizos, quadroons, etc., as proves, beyond 
all possible question, a widely-diffused profligacy and licentiousness. It is in 
vain to deny it. There they are, stamped by heaven with the indelible marks 
of their polluted origin — a spectacle which might make the sun to blush as he 
looks down upon them." 

Again : 

" (9) Another crying evil is, that men grow rich without industry, and be- 
come luxurious, and enervated, and prodigal, because they do not know the 
worth of money, having never labored to acquire it. Hence, the extremes of 
high luxury and degraded poverty in every slaveholding country. It is im- 
possible that it should be. otherwise." 

And all this in a free, enlightened, philanthropic, Christian land, 
and yet we are exhorted not to care for it ! The very words " not 
caring^'' are used on page 4. While we " cannot walk the streets 
of any large town or city in a slaveholding State, without seeing 
such a multitude of mulattos, mestizos, quadroons, etc., as proves 
beyond all possible question, a widely diffused profligacy and licen- 
tiousness ; " while " females, ignorant and without a sense of delica- 
cy, implanted and cherished, are at the mercy of their masters, old 
and young," — yet we are exhorted not to " care about it," " not to 



59 

make a fuss about it ! " I absolutely am almost compelled to hold 
my breath in astonishment at such reasoning, or such exhortation — 
I hardly know what to call it. But hear the Professor still further 
page 105 : 

" When I think on the utter callousness which such vices generate in the 
hearts of men and women, the insensibility that is superinduced upon all that 
is delicate, and refined, and pure, and chaste, and lovely, I might well say with 
Jeremiah : ' IMine eyes run down with tears.' If there were no other aroii- 
ment against slavery, this alone would be amply sufficient to secure the repro- 
bation of it, in the eyes of every impartial and enlightened Christian man." 

"VYhat ! the Professor's eyes " run down with tears," and yet 
others are to be chastised for caring for it ! ! ! And this advice 
to he quiet, comes, too, from the Professor at the moment that efforts 
are being made, at the seat of our Government, to extend this awful 
evil, and curse soil now free, with all the abominations that he has 
so graphically and truly portrayed. 

If this nation of freemen — this nation that in its own revolution- 
ary struggle appealed to the God of Heaven for the justice of their 
cause, and for divine aid — this nation whose heart has recently 
beat in sympathy with the oppressed of foreign nations, — this 
nation, whose Christian charities are extended to all the kino^doms of 
the earth, can sit quietly and see American slavery extending, she 
deserves the execrations of the civilized world. At the bar of 
Heaven we should stand condemned as traitors to humanity, — as 
false to our free institutions, — false to the principles of justice, — 
false to Christianity, — false to God ! 

We now come to the consideration of the passage of St. Paul, 
in 1 Tim. i. 9,10. It runs thus : 

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the law- 
less and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, 
for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for man-slayers, for whore- 
mongers, and them that defile themselves with mankind, for man-stealers, for 
liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to 
sound doctrine. 

Our special business now is with the men-stealers, who, in this 
passage, at least, do not find themselves in very respectable com- 



60 

panj ! The Greek word lii'dQunodiaTuig, -wliich is translated men-steal- 
ers, is derived from the verb aj'(J^«7ro(5t^Wj which is composed of (i »'']?, 
man, and Ttodt'^w, to fetter. The meaning of the verb is "to 
make a slave ; to subdue and reduce to slavery : to exercise 
the trade of a slave merchant." The meaning of the noun 
is " one who makes a man a slave ; " '^ a slave merchant,'" 
that, is, any one who traffics in slaves, who buys and sells hu 
man beings. But, asks perhaps, the startled reader, are you 
about to class all who buy or sell servants at the South, with 
liars, whoremongers, murderers of fathers, &c." I reply, no ; but 
I am am about to investigate this passage, to see where the apostle 
Paul classes them. He is good authority, South and North. 

The learned grammarian Eustathius, and other grammarians of 
the first rank, tell us that ui'dQctnodtaxTji^ixi its popular sense, is a per 
son " who deals in men ; " literally a slave trader. "Our transla- 
tors," says Bishop Horsley, in one of his speeches in the House of 
Lords, " have taken the word in its restricted sense, which it bears 
in the Attic law, in which the ^t/v dydganodia^ov was a criminal 
prosecution for the specific crime of kidnapping, the penalty of 
which was death. But the phraseology of the Holy Scriptures, 
especially in the preceptive part, is a popular phraseology; and 
(xvdQUTt 8iarr}g is a person who deals in men." 

Another able critic, in commenting upon the word, says, " Let 
then the slave traders, (Christians, alas !) of our times tremble ; 
for all who in anij way participate in that abominable traffic are 
ufdgano5iaTai^ siucc they thereby uphold a system which per- 
petually engenders man-stealing.''^ * 

Macknight says, (p. 445 of Commentary on Epistles) in remark- 
ing upon the word, " They who, like the African traders, encourage 
that unchristian traffic, by purchasing the slaves whom they know 
to be thus unjustly acquired, are partakers in their crime." 

The Rev. Albert Barnes, in his notes on this passage, says, 
" The guilt of man-stealing is incurred essentially by those who pur- 
chase those who are thus stolen ; as the purchaser of a stolen horse, 
knowing it to be so, participates in the crime. A measure of that 

* See Bloomfield's Annotations on the New Testament, vol 8, p. 201. 



61 

criminality also adheres to all who own slaves, for it is a system 
known to have been originated by theft. This crime was expressly 
forbidden by the law of God, and was made punishable with death. 
Ex. xxi. 16. Deut. xxiv. 7." 

Adam Clarke translates the word, " slave-dealers, whether those 
who carry on the traffic in human flesh and blood, or those who 
steal a person, in order to sell him into bondage," &c. 

Let me now give the opinion of the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian church of the United States, as expressed in 1794, 
authority that neither the Professor, nor the present members of 
both Assemblies can set aside. 

Their doctrine at that period is stated in the note b. appended to the one 
hundred and forty-second question of the larger Catechism, in these words : 

" 1 Tim. i, 10. The law is made for man-stealers. This crime among the 
Jews exposed the perpetrators of it to capital punishment ; Exodus xxi. 16 ; 
and the apostle here classes them with sinners of the first rank. The word he 
uses, in its original import, comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any 
of the human race into slavery, or in retaining them in it. Hominum fures, qui 
servos vel liberos abducunt, retinent, vendunt, vel emunt. Stealers of men are 
all those who bring off slaves or freemen, and keep, sell, or buy them. To steal 
a freeman, says Grotius, is the highest kind of theft. In other instances, 
we only steal human property, but when we steal or retain men in slavery, we 
seize those who, in common with ourselves, are constituted by the original grant; 
lords of the earth. Genesis i. 28. Vide Poll synopsin in loc." 

In the year 1818, the General Assembly expressed more fully 
their views upon the evils of slavery, as may be seen in " The Di- 
gest of the General Assembly," from which the following extract is 
made : 

" The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, having taking into 
consideration the subject of slavery, think proper to make known their senti 
ments upon it. 

" We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by 
another, as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human 
nature ; as utterly inconsistent with the law of God which requires us to love 
our neighbor as ourselves ; and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and 
principles of the Gospel of Christ, which enjoin that ' all things whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' Slavery cre- 
ates a paradox in the moral system — it exhibits rational, accountable, and im" 



62 

mortal beings in such circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of 
moral action It exhibits them as dependent on the will of others, whether 
they shall receive religious instruction ; whether they shall know and wor- 
ship the true God ; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the Gospel ; 
whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the endearments of husbands 
and wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends ; whether they shall 
preserve their chastity and purity, or regard the dictates of justice and human- 
ity. Such are some of the consequences of slavery ; consequences not imaginary^ 
but which connect themselves with its very existence. The evils to which the 
slave is always exposed, often take place in their ver^ icorst degree and form; 
and where all of them do not take place, still the slave is deprived of his natur- 
al rights, degraded as a human being, and exposed to the danger of passing in- 
to the hands of a master, who may inflict upon him all the hardships and inju- 
ries which inhumanity and avarice may suggest. 

" From this view of the consequences resulting from the practice into which 
Christian people have most inconsistently fallen, of enslaving a portion of their 
brethren of mankind, it is manifestly the duty of all Christians, when the in- 
consistency of slavery with the dictates of humanity and religion has been de- 
monstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledged, to use their honest, earn- 
est and unwearied endeavors, as speedily as possible to efface this blot on our 
holv relio-ion, and to obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout the 
■world. AVe earnestly exhort them," the slaveholders, " to continue and to in- 
crease their exertions to effect the total abolition of slavery." 

Now, if these quotations, and the views and authorities that we 
have presented upon the word " men-stealers," in 1 Tim, i. 10, are 
correct, then it is clear that St. Paul does rank the sin of slavery 
with " sins of the first magnitude," and the American slaveholders 
are bound to give up the Bible, or give up slavery. There is no 
escape from this. If Eustathius, Bishop Horsley, Dr. Macknight, 
the Rev. Adam Clarke, the Rev. Albert Barnes, and the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, are cor- 
rect in their interpretation of the word men-stealers and solemnly 
declare that it means not only those who steal slaves, but also those 
■who buy and sell slaves, and who " retain " men in slavery, then 
the supporters of this system must admit that St. Paul is against 
them. 

And is it not time, I would ask, that these constant appeals to 
the Bible by Northern and Southern divines, in defense of slavery 
be stopped ? Is it not time that this sophistry, and false exegesis, 
and flagrant perversion of the Word of God be exposed ? 



63 

To show the reader with what confidence Southern Christians 
appeal to the Bible on this question, let me give the action of the 
church in Petersburg, Virginia, 16th of November, 1838, in rela- 
tion to the sentiments expressed by the General Assembly, a portion 
of which I have quoted above : 

" Whereas the General Assembly did in 1818 pass a law wliicli contains pro- 
visions for slaves, irreconcilable with our civil institutions, and solemnly declar- 
ing slavery to be a sin against God — a law at once offensive and insulting to 
the whole Southern community : 

Resolved, 1. That as slaveholders, we cannot consent longer to remain in 
connection witli any church where there exists a statute conferring a right upon 
slaves to arraign their masters before the judicatory of the church — and that, 
too, for the act of selling them, without their consent first had and obtained. 

2. That as the great Head of the Church has recognized the relation of master 
and slave, we conscientiously believe that slavery is not a sin against God, as de- 
clared by the General Assembly. 

3. That there is no tyranny more oppressive than that which is sometimes 
sanctioned by the operation of ecclesiastical law." 

Similar resolutions in regard to the bearing of scripture upon 
slavery have been passed by the Synod of Virginia, several Presby- 
teries in South Carolina, and other ecclesiastical bodies in the slave 
States. The arguments, however, by which they attempt to sustain 
themselves, are as utterly untenable as those which Professor 
Stuart has brought forward. They have never adduced a single 
passage from the Bible that sustains or warrants the horrible and 
barbarous system of American slavery. 

In regard to the " Great Head of the Church," to whom they so 
often appeal, we would remark, that while Christ, to a certain ex- 
tent, condemned specific sins, yet his great object was to plant in 
the hearts of men such principles as would lead them to renounce 
every sin. His design was to render men Jtoly, to bring them under 
the great laws of benevolence, justice and love, that reign in the 
heavenly world. He pointed out distinctly our relations one to 
another, as well as our relations. and duties to God. He taught us 
to recognize the rights of all men ; to regard their interests in our 
dealings with them ; to bestow upon the poor our charities, upon 
the unfortunate our compassion, upon all our love. He labored, in 



64 

short, to demolish the principle of selfishness, that had for four 
thousand years occupied the throne of the aflfections, and to place 
upon that throne the principle of henevolence- Under the sway of 
the former principle, the earth had been the theatre of wars, blood, 
shed, crime, and oppression in its most horrible forms. 

At the time of our Saviour's advent, slavery was universal 
throughout the Roman empire. Some wealthy persons owned even 
ten and fifteen thousand slaves, and it is computed (see Professor 
Edwards, on Roman slavery,) that in Italy there were three slaves 
to one freeman. Very many became slaves by being taken cap- 
tives in war, and others were purchased from slave dealers = It is 
said that Caesar took 400,000 captives in his Gallic wars, and mul- 
titudes of slaves were brought from the islands of the Mediterranean. 

Their condition under the Romans, as we have already shown, 
was oppressive and cruel in the highest degree. They could neither 
marry nor hold property, nor obtain any redress under the sever- 
est injuries. The master had the power of life and death over his 
slave, and could treat him with the most unrelenting barbarity, 
while no civil law extended its shield over the sufferer. Exquisite 
tortures, too, were not unfrequently inflicted upon the slaves, and 
some even for trivial offence, were buried ahve, others crucified, 
and others put to death after lingering and acute sufferings. 

Can we for a moment suppose that our blessed Saviour, whose 
heart beat in sympathy with every form of human suffering, who was 
so ready to heal the sick, afford consolation to the poor, and com- 
fort to the afflicted, who was moved to tears while standing at the 
grave of a friend, could look upon this horrible system with any other 
feelings than those of the keenest sorrow and deepest abhorrence ? 
But the question that presented itself to his mind was, how shall 
this gigantic system of iniquity, — this system that has risen up in 
defiance of every principle of justice, every feeling of humanity, 
every law of God, — this system, the cruelties of which cannot be 
contemplated, without a sickening disgust, how shall this be most 
effectually demolished ? It is interwoven with all the civil and so- 
cial institutions of the empire, and specific rules or directions may 
only aggravate the evil, and convulse the empire without breaking 
the chains of the oppressed. The great moral Legislator, therefore, 



6^ 

in infinite wisdom, lays down principles of justice, humanity and be- 
nevolence, which will, by their operation upon the hearts of men, 
gradually work society clear of this awful sin. And we find that as 
Christianity made progress, the disciples of Christ deemed it one of 
their most urgent duties, to liberate those whom, while in their sins, 
they had held in bondage. Clemens, in his epistle to the Corinthi- 
ans, says, " We have known many among ourselves who have de- 
livered themselves into bonds and slavery that they might restore 
others to their liberty." Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, expended his 
whole estate, and then sold himself in order to accomplish the same 
object. Cyprian sent to the Bishop of Numidia 2590 crowns in or 
der to redeem some captives. Socrates, the historian, says that after 
the Roman army had taken some 7,000 Persian captives, Acacius, 
Bishop of Amida, melted down the gold and silver plate of his church, 
with which he redeemed the captives. Ambrose did the same in 
respect to the furniture of his church. It was the only case in 
which the imperial constitution allowed plate to be sold. 

Such then, were some of the practical effects of the principles of 
the Gospel upon slavery, among the early Christians. And under 
the influence of these same principles, slavery has been abohshed in 
Great Britain, in the free States of our own country, and upon the 
continent of Europe. And while other and less enlightened nations 
than our own, are getting rid of this evil, it is a disgrace to us, that 
so many are willing not only to retain it, but to fortify their opin. 
ions, by svlch an obvious and flagrant perversion of God's Holy 
Word! 



IX.— MR. WEBSTER AND THE CONSTITUTION. 

We now approach Mr. Webster's speech, in defense of which 
Mr. Stuart argues with more zeal than ability. In entering upon 
this branch of our subject we feel that our limits will not allow us to 
examine as thoroughly and minutely every point presented in this 
speech, as the case demands. Indeed such an examination is ren- 
dered unnecessary, as the Hon. Horace Mann, the Hon. J. Z. 
Goodrich, and other gentlemen eminently qualified for the work, 
6 



66 

have so ablj and successfully refuted many of the arguments which 
Mr. Webster adduced on the slavery question. 

Yet there are some points, which deserve consideration, in order 
to meet Professor Stuart, where he appears in defense of this 
speech. And if any other apology, than that which this pamphlet 
affords me, is needed for my considering the constitutional and po- 
litical bearings of the questions before us, I would find it in the 
Hon. Mr. Webster's own solemn appeals to the ministers of the 
gospel, to raise their warning voice in " denunciation of the crimes" 
connected with slavery. 

In his address dehvered at Plymouth, Dec, 22, 1820, in com- 
memoration of the first settlement of New England, (see Web- 
ster's speeches, vol. 1, p. 53, 64, 8th edition,) he pours forth from 
his noble heart, a torrent of indignation against those who are guilty 
of participating in the African slave trade. At that time he felt 
the deep injustice and barbarity of tearing women and children 
from their African homes, and forcibly transporting them to America, 
as we now feel the deep injustice and barbarity of tearing women 
and children from their Virginia homes, and forcibly carrying them 
to Texas or New Mexico. And if the African slave trader was so 
guilty in the eyes of Mr. Webster, then the great and honored 
champion of freedom, how much more guilty at this day, ought the 
American slave trader to appear in his estimation, who, with all 
the light and knowledge that now surround him, is struggling to 
open a market on free soil for " this odious and abominable trade.^' 

Had the Hon. Mr. Webster, of 1850, been consistent with the 
Hon. Mr. Webster of 1820, the more pleasing duty would have de- 
volved upon us, to have made an humble attempt to increase the 
lustre of his fame, and add, if possible, another star to the splendid 
wreath that then adorned his noble brow. 

In the address referred to, he said, 

" I deem it my duty on this occasion to suggest, that the land is 
not yet wholly free from the contamination of a traffic at which eve- 
ry feeling of humanity must forever revolt. # « * 

" In the sight of our law, the African slave trader is a pirate and 
a felon, and in the sight of Heaven an offender far beyond the ordin- 
ary depth of human guilt. There is no brighter part of our histo- 



67 

ry, than that which records the measures which have been adopted 
bj the government, at an early day, and at different times since, 
for the suppression of this traffic, and I would call on all the true 
sons of New England to co-operate with the laws of man, and the 
justice of Heaven. 

" If there be, within the extent of our knowledge and influence, 
any participation in this traffic in slaves, let us pledge ourselves up- 
on the Hock of Plymouth^ to extirpate and destroy it. It is not 
fit that the land of the Pilorrims should bear the shame lono;er. 
Let that spot be purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian 
world ; let it be put out of the circle of human sympathies and human 
regards; and let civilized men henceforth have no connection with it. 

" I invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and all who minister 
at her altar, that they exercise the wholesome and necessary sever- 
ity of the law. I invoke the ministers of religion, that they pro- 
claim its denunciation of those crimes, and add its solemn sanction 
to the authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever 
and wherever there may be a sinner, bloody with this guilt, within 
the hearing of its voice, the pulpitis false to its trust." 

For one, I stand ready to respond to this appeal in its just appli- 
cation to the American slave trader, as well as the African ; and 
while responding to it, I commend the whole passage to the special 
attention of those editors who are so ready to raise the cry of " pol- 
itics and the pulpit," whenever a clergyman has the presumption to 
express his views upon questions of national interest. Some jour- 
nals and political parties, the moment they adopt any national sin, 
and commence protecting it and nursing it as their own, cry out to 
the ministers of the gospel, " Gentlemen, hands off. This is a polit- 
ical question, one with which you have nothing to do. Your duty 
is to preach the gospel, expose the sins of the wicked antediluvians, 
the idolatrous Canaanites, and the hypocritical Pharisees, and let 
politics alone !" Such was the cry when the Mexican war was rag- 
ing. Although it is admitted that the gospel condemns war 
and slavery, and that it is the duty of Christians to use their influ- 
ence to destroy these evils ; yet, when a party or newspaper, for po- 
litical capital, or any other purposes, becomes the special protector 
of these sins, then, forsooth, the pulpit must suspend its denunciation ! 



68 

We might now preach or write upon the sinfulness and horrors of 
war without incurring the least risk of giving offence, although the 
war question was so recently a " political question." . 

But to all who are ready to raise the cry of " politics and the pulpit" 
now that slavery is adopted and caressed by them, we would address 
the solemn words of their great chieftain: " If the pulpit he silent 
whenever or ivherever there may he a sinner hloody with this guilt, 
within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its 

TRUST." 

Mr. Webster, in his speech, is said to have presented us with a 
lucid and forcible exhibition of the bearing of the Constitution on 
slavery, and those who dissent from him are accused of opposing the 
Constitution. In order that we may form a correct opinion of the 
nature and extent of the connection between the United States 
Constitution and slavery, it is necessary that we go back and inquire 
into the views of its framers, and the sentiments that prevailed in 
the country atthe period of its adoption. The most reliable sources 
of information with reference to these points, are the two following 
works : — The papers of James Madison, purchased by order of Con- 
gress, being his correspondence, &c., and his reports of debates in 
the Federal Convention ; now published from the original manu- 
scripts, &c. 3 vols. New York : 1841." Also, " Secret proceed- 
ings and debates of the Convention assembled at Philadelphia in 
1787, to form the Constitution of the United States, from notes 
taken by Robert Yates, Esq. 1 vol. Albany : 1821." 

From these works it appears that, previous to the adoption of the 
present Constitution, five or six plans or drafts of government were 
laid before the Convention for their consideration ; one by Mr. Ed- 
mund Randolph, on the 29th of May; another by Mr. Charles 
Pickering, another by the Hon. Mr. Patterson, another by Col. Ham- 
ilton. In neither of these drafts or plans, is there a single allusion 
to the restoration of fugitive slaves. In the Resolutions of the Con- 
vention, referred, in July, 1787, to a committee of five, for the pur- 
pose of reporting a Constitution, no instructions are given upon this 
point, and in the draft of a Constitution, which this committee pre- 
sented, there was no allusion to this subject. 

When, however, the fifteenth article of the draft of the Constitu- 



69 

tion was under consideration, wbich relates to delivering up fugi- 
tives, criminak^^ersons charged with treason, felony, &c., two del- 
egates from South Carolina, Messrs. Butler and Pinckney, moved 
an amendment, requiring fugitive slaves and servants to be deliv- 
ered up hke criminals." This was objected to, and finally a sepa- 
rate clause was inserted as follows : 

" No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein 
be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of 
the party to whom such service or labor may be due." 

It is worthy of notice, also, that while South Carolina was the au- 
thor of this stain upon our Constitution, that State voted against 
the adoption of the fourteenth article, which reads thus, " The citi- 
zens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities 
of citizens in the several States." When this article was read, 
Gen. Pinckney expressed his dissatisfaction with it, as he was desi- 
rous that some " provision should be included in favor of prop erty 
in slaves," and when the question was put on the final adoption of 
this clause, "a/Z the delegates from South Carolina voted against it^ 

The other clauses in the Constitution that bear upon the slavery 
question, are so worded that the casual reader would scarcely sup- 
pose that they related to slaves at all, so careful were the members 
of the convention to exclude the words slave and slavery from this 
Constitution of free men. 

The 9th section, Art. 1, relating to the slave trade, is as follows : 

« The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now ex- 
isting shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited prior to the year 1808, 
but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dol- 
lars for each person." 

When the subject of continuing or abolishing the slave trade was 
before the convention, some of the members expressed very boldly 
and fully their views upon the whole slavery question. I will give 
a few extracts as reported by Mr. Yates, (p. 64-67.) 

" It was said that we had just assumed a place among independent nations, 
6* 



70 

m consequence of our opposition to the attempts of Great Britain to * enslave 
us, that this opposition was grounded upon the preservation of those rights to 
■which God and nature had entitled us, not in particular, but in common -with 
all the rest of mankind. That we had appealed to the Supreme Being for his 
assistance as the God of freedom ; who could not but approve our efforts to pre. 
serve the rights which he had thus imparted to his creatures ; that now, when we 
scarcely had risen from our knees, from supplicating his aic/ and /)rotec^ton — in 
forming our government over a/ree people, a government formed pretendedly 
on the principles of liberty and for its preservation — in that government to 
have a provision, not only putting it out of its power to restrain and prevent the 
slave trade, even encouraging that most infamous traffic, by giving the States 
power and union, in proportion as they cruelly and wantonly sport with the 
rights of their fellow creatures, ought to be considered as a solemn mockery of, 
and insult to, that God whose protection we then implored, and could not fail 
to hold us up in detestation, and render us contemptible to every true friend of 
liberty in the world." " That on the contrary we ought rath- 
er to prohibit expressly in our Constitution, the further importation of slaves ; 
and to authorize the general government from time to time to make such regula- 
tions as should be thought advantageous for the gradual abolition of slavery and 
the emancipation of the slaves which are already in the States." 

" That slavery is inconsistent with the genius of republicanism, and has a ten- 
dency to destroy t\xQ.5Q principles on which it is supported, as it lessens the sense 
of the equal rights of mankind, and habituates us to tyranny and op)in-ession. It 
was further urged that by this system of government, every State is to be pro- 
tected both from foreign invasions and from domestic insurrections ; that from 
this consideration it was of the utmost importance it should have a power to re- 
strain the importation of slaves, since in proportion as the number of slaves were 
increased in any State, in the same proportion the State is lueakened and ex- 
posed to foreign invasion or domestic insurrection, and hy so much less will it be 
able to protect itself against either, and therefore will, by so much the more, 

want aid from, and be a burden to, the Union." 

" At this time we do not generally hold the commerce in so great abhorrence 
as we have done. When our liberties were at stake we tcarmly felt for the 
common rights of men. The danger being thought to be past, which threatened 
ourselves, we are daily growing more insensible to those rights." 

Such were the sentiments that were advanced in the Convention 
of 1787, when the Constitution was under consideration, and although 
these sentiments and the proceedings to which I have alluded, do 
not affect the legal character of this instrument, they bear upon its 



* The words italicised in these extracts are thus printed in the original. 



71 

moral character, and should have weight with all Christian expoun- 
ders of the Constitution. That this instrument gives no license to 
extend slavery, is obvious to the most cursory reader. Indeed, its 
framers regarded slavery as a wrong, a curse, an outrage upon all 
those rights for which they had been so earnestly contending, and 
the language of the Constitution was selected with reference to the 
application of this instrument to a just and free people. The opinion 
was generally entertained that slavery was to die out, and not be 
perpetuated or extended. The whole number of delegates appoint- 
ed to attend this Convention, from the several States was, accord- 
ing to Mr. Yates' report, sixty-five. Of this number ten did not 
attend, and of those who attended, sixteen did not sign the Consti- 
tution, as amended and adopted, on the 17th of September, 1787. 
Richard Hildreth, Esq., in his History of the United States, 
lately published, says, vol. 3, p. 526 : 

" Of those who signed [the Constitution] probably there was not one to whom 
all the provisions of the instrument were satisfactory, but gradually matured, as 
it had been, in a four months' discussion, by a compromise of contending inter- 
ests and opinions. It was accepted as the best that circumstances admitted, and 
as promising, on the whole, an improvement on the old confederation." 

When it was proposed by Messrs. Gerry and Mason, to prepare 
a bill of rights to be adopted by the Convention, the measure was 
lost by a tie vote. In alluding to the fact that five Southern States 
voted against it, Mr. Hildreth says, p. 523, " Some difficulty per- 
haps, was apprehended by the South, in drawing up a bill of rights, 
to square with the existence of slavery." When the Constitution 
was submitted to the several States for their approval, the greatest 
objection that was urged against it was " that it had no bill of rights, 
and was deficient in guaranties of personal liberty." 

We do not bring forward these facts for the purposes of weaken- 
ing the power of this instrument, but to show that the same embar- 
rassments and difficulties that exist, with reference to its bearing up- 
on slavery, at the present day, existed at the time of its adoption. 
It was framed amid strong opposition to the system of slavery. 
Many in the convention felt that it was solemn mockery, and an in 
suit to the God of Heaven, after they had, in their recent struggle 



72 

appealed to him and his aid in so just a cause, to turn around and 
fasten chains upon their fellow men. Had it not been for the 
clamorous demands of the delegation from South Carolina the fugi- 
tive slave clause would never probably have been inserted in the Con- 
stitution. And from that time down to the present day, this State has 
been the stronghold of slavery. It resisted most earnestly the sup- 
pression of the African slave trade, and threatened to dissolve the 
Union in case this accursed traflBc was abolished. It has been fore- 
most in its efforts to extend the area of slavery, and to embarrass 
the movements of Congress for the advancement of human freedom. 



X. — VIEWS OF WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, ADMIS, PATRICK 
HENRY, &c. ON SLAVERY. 

The opinions and feelings of the immortal Washington, who was 
President of the Convention that formed the Constitution, may be 
gathered from his letters. 

In one address to Robert Morris, Esq., he said : 

" I hope that it will not be conceived from these observations, that it is my 
■wish to hold the unhappy people who are the subject of this letter, in slavery. 
I can only say, that there is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than 
I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it ; but there is only one pro- 
per and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is, by the 
legislative authority ; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall not be 
wanting." 

In another to John F. Mercer, Esq., he said : 

' " I never mean, unless some particular circumstance should compel me to 
it, to possess another slave by purchase ; it being among my first wishes to see 
some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law." 

In writing to Gen. Lafayette, he said : 

" The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so conspicuous on all 
occasions, that I never wonder at fresh proofs of it ; but your late purchase of 
an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves, is 
a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God, a like spirit 
might diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people in this country." 



73 

The noble and benevolent Lafayette felt most keenly the wrongs 
of this nation in upholding slavery. 
He said on one occasion : 

" While I am indulging in my views of American prospects, and American 
liberty, it is mortifying to be told that in that very country, a large portion of 
the people are slaves ! It is a dark spot on the face of the nation. Such a 
state of things cannot always exist. 

I see in the papers, that there is a plan of gradual abolition of slavery in the 
district of Columbia. I would be doubly happy of it, for the measure in itself, 
and because a sense of American pride makes me recoil at the observations of 
the diplomatists, and other foreigners, who gladly improve the unfortunate ex- 
isting circumstances, into a general objection to our republican, and (saving 
that deplorable evil) our matchless system." 

The allusion of General Washington to the colony of Cayenne is 
thus referred to in the private life of Gen. Lafayette — vol. 1, p. 149. 

•' After the decisive campaign against Lord Cornwallis, in 1781, Lafayette, 
on receiving the thanks of the State of Virginia, which had particularly profit- 
ed by his successes, replied, by the expression of a wish, that Hberty might be 
speedily extended to all men, without distinction. But he was not contented with 
sterile wishes, and on his return to France, flattering himself, like Turgot and 
Poivre, that the gradual emancipation of the negroes might be conciliated with 
the personal interests of the colonies, he was desirous of establishing the fact 
by experience, and for that purpose, he tried a special experiment, on a scale 
sufficiently large to put the question to the test. 

********* 

When Lafayette had been proscribed in 1792, the National convention con- 
fiscated all his property, and oi'dered his negroes to be sold at Cayenne, in 
spite of the remonstrances of Madame Lafayette, who protested against the 
sale, observing, that the negroes had been purchased only to be restored to 
liberty after their instruction, and not to be again sold as objects of trade and 
speculation. At a later period, all the negroes of the French colonies were 
declared free, by a decree of the National Convention. It is nevertheless re- 
markable, that some of Lafayette's plans, with regard to the slave emancipa- 
tion, were realized." 

The views of Thomas Jefferson, who was appointed Secretary of 
State in 1794, and President of the United States in 1801, are 
generally known, and yet I cannot forbear giving some quotations 
from his writings showing his hostility to slavery. He says, (see 
Notes on the State of Virginia :) 



74 

" What an Incomprehensible machine is man ! who can endure toil, famine, 
stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and 
the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him 
through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is 
fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose In rebellion to op- 
pose. But we must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Provi- 
dence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these our suffering 
brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full — when their tears 
shall have involved heaven itself In darkness — doubtless a God of justice 
will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing a light and liberality among 
their oppressors, or, at length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his atten- 
tion to things of this world, and that they are not lefl to the guidance of blind 
fatality." 

Again he sajs : 

" With what execration should the statesman be loaded, who permitting one 
half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those in- 
to despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the 
amor patriae of the other. For if a slave can have a country in this world, it 
must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labor 
for another, In which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as 
far as depends on his individual endeavors to the banishment of the human 
race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless generations proceed- 
ing from him. With the morals of the people, their industry also is destroyed. 
For in a warm climate no man will labor for himself who can make another 
labor for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves, a very small 
proportion, indeed, are ever seen to labor. And can the liberties of a nation 
be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction 
in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God .? That 
they are not to be violated but with his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my 
country, when I reflect that God is just ; that his justice cannot sleep for ever ; 
that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the 
wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events ; that it 
may become probable by supernatural Interference. The Almighty has no at- 
tribute zuhich can take side with us in such a contest. But it is impossible to be 
temperate and to pursue this subject." 

Benjamin Franklin, according to Steuben's account, (see Life of 
Franklin, by William Temple Franklin) was President of the Penn- 
sylvania Society for promoting the abolition of slavery, and as such 
signed the memorial that was presented to the House of Represen- 
tatives of the United States, on the 12th of February, 1789, pray- 
ing that body to exert, to their fullest extent, the power vested in 



I 



75 

them by the Constitution, in discouraging the traffic in human flesh. 
The foUowing is part of the memorial : 

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States : 

The Memorial of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the abolition 
of slavery, the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and the im- 
provement of the condition of the African race — 
Respectfully Sheweth : 

That from a regard for the happiness of mankind, an association was form- 
ed several years ago in this State, by a number of her citizens of various religi- 
ous denominations, for promoting the abolition of slavery, and for the relief of 
those unlawfully held in bondage. A just and accurate conception of the true 
principles of liberty, as it spread through the land, produced accession to their 
numbers, many friends to their cause, and a legislative co-operation with their 
views, which, by the blessing of Divine Providence, have been successfully di- 
rected to the relieving from bondage a large number of their fellow-creatures 
of the African race. 



From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the portion, and is still 
the birthright of all men, and influenced by the strong ties of humanity and 
the principles of their institution, your memorialists conceive themselves 
bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bond of slavery, and 
promote the general enjoyment of the blessings of freedom. Under these im- 
pressions, they earnestly entreat your serious attention to the subject of slave- 
ry ; that you will be pleased to countenance the restoration of liberty to those 
unhappy men, who alone in this land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual 
bondage, and who amidst the general joy of surrounding freemen, are groaning 
in servile subjection — that you will devise means for removing this incon- 
sistency from the character of the American people — that you will promote 
mercy and justice towards this distressed race, and that you will step to the 
very verge of the power vested in you for discouraging every species of traffic 
in the persons of our fellow men. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, President. 

Philadelphia, Feb. 3, 1790. [Federal Gazette, 1790.] 

How different are these views from those recently advanced by 
the Hon. Henry Clay, in his speech on his Compromise bill, by 
Senator Foote in his furious attacks upon the citadel of freedom, 
and by the Hon. Daniel Webster, late champion of our liberties, 
and expander of the Constitution. 

It is truly refreshing to read the noble and patriotic views of 



76 

these old American heroes, after having had our blood chilled by 
the perusal of Mr. Webster's speech and Mr. Stuart's pamphlet. 

But let us hear Patrick Henry, -whose soul-stirring eloquence con. 
tributed so much towards arousing the nation to assert and defend 
her rights. Let us hear him who embodied his own views of the 
worth of liberty in the following words : 

" Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains 
and slavery ? Forbid it Almighty God ! — I know not what course others 
may take ; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death." 

In a letter addressed to Robert Pleasants, Esq., under date of 
Havana, Jan. 18, 1773, he writes : 

" It is not a little surprising, that the professors of Christianity, whose chief 
excellence consists in softening the human heart, in cherishing and improving 
its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally repugnant to the 
first impressions of right and wrong. What adds to the wonder is, that this 
abominable practice has been introduced In the most enlightened ages. Times 
that seem to have pretensions to boast of high improvements in the arts 
and sciences, and refined morality, have brought Into general use, and 
guarded by many laws, a species of violence and tyranny, which our more 
rude and barbarous, but more honest ancestors detested. Is It not amaz- 
ing, that at a time when the rights of humanity are defined and understood 
with precision. In a country, above all others, fond of liberty, that in such 
an age, and In such a country, we find men professing a religion the most 
humane, mild, gentle, and generous, adopting a principle as repugnant to hu- 
manity as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destructive to liberty ? Every 
thinking, honest man, rejects It in speculation. How few in practice, from 
conscientious motives ! ...------- 

" / believe a time will come when an opportunity ivill be offered to abolish this 
lamentable evil. Everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our 
day ; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity 
for their unhappy lot, and our abhorrence for slavery. If we cannot reduce this 
■wished for reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity. 
It is the furthest advance we can make towards justice ; it Is a debt we owe 
to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that law which 
•warrants slavery. I know not where to stop. I could say many things on the 
subject, a serious view of which gives a gloomy perspective to future times ! " 

James Monroe, in a speech pronounced in the Virginia Conven- 
tion said : " We have found that this evil has preyed upon the very 
vitals of the Union and has been prejudicial to all the States in 



77 

which It has existed." The views of Samuel Adams may be learned 
from the following extract : 

" His principles on the subject of human rights carried him far beyond the 
narrow limits which many loud asserters of their own liberty have prescribed to 
themselves, to the recognition of this right in every human being. One day 
the wife of Mr. Adams returning home, informed her husband that a friend 
had made her a present of a female slave. Mr. Adams replied in a firm, decid- 
ed manner; ' She may come, hut not as a slave, for a slave cannot live in my 
house ; if she comes, she must come free.' She came, and took her f-ee abode 
with the family of this great champion of American liberty, and there she con- 
tinued free, and there she died free." — Rev. Mr. Allen, Uxhridge, Mass. 

It is an interesting fact that of the first six Presidents of the 
United States (from the immortal Washington down to John Q. 
Adams) all but one have left on record expressions of their 
hostility to American slavery ; nor can we but reflect with the high- 
est gratification upon the noble course which our late worthy Presi- 
dent took with reference to the agitating questions of the day. His 
earnest recommendations to Congress to admit without delay the 
State of California, with her free Constitution, unembarrassed by 
other and foreign matters, rendered him the worthy successor of these 
illustrious men. 

Let us now descend from these refreshing heights, to the pam- 
phlet before us. Mr. Stuart, in his remarks upon those who, at the 
present day, have some conscientious scruples with reference to de- 
livering up fugitives, (a point which, in its connection with the Con- 
stitution, we shall soon consider,) very gravely asks, (p. 61,) "Can 
we respect a conscience which puts the broad seal of disgrace and 
infamy on those immortal men and patriots who formed our Consti- 
tution, and who in all our States accepted and approved of it ? And 
where now has consciencehQQn, these sixty years past? What sort 
of men have adorned our legislative halls, our pulpits, our churches ? 
Men, it would seem, who did not understand even the first rudiments 
of religion, or of civil liberty and the rights of man. Has consci- 
ence slept profoundly so long in the fathers, and now have their 
children become all at once ' wiser than Daniel,' and discovered 
what poor, grovelling, half-witted men their fathers were ? " 

" Conscience slept lyrofoundly ! ^^ No, Sir. The conscience of 
7 



78 

this nation has never slept upon the slavery question, from the horn- 
that the noble Massachusetts colonists sent back the first cargo of 
slaves that landed upon their shores, to Africa, down to the issue of 
this remarkable pamphlet. Indeed, "conscience" has been, under the 
influence of our rehgion and education, becoming more and more sen- 
sitive, and were it not for the support that the atrocious system of 
slavery receives from Northern statesmen, and professing Christians, 
we should not now have the nation convulsed, and the Union endanger- 
ed, by the application of a free State to be admitted to our confede- 
ration. We should not have California's free constitution used as a 
dray-horse, to drag after it a load of abominations, such as the so- 
called Compromise bill presents to us. 

" A conscience which puts the broad seal of disgrace and infamy 
on those immortal men and patriots who formed the Constitution ! " 
But I would ask, if those " immortal men " were so conscientious 
in respect to inserting the fugitive slave clause, may not some of 
their descendants have some conscience about executing it? Is this 
" conscience " to be ridiculed, as Mr. Stuart ridicules it on the page 
that precedes our last extract ? Is it to be brought into contempt, 
by comparing it with that which the hangers of witches had, and 
Quakers " who went about the streets in jniris naturalibus ? " Be- 
sides, if the " conscience " of these modern freemen puts " the 
broad seal of disgrace and infamy on those immortal men who form- 
ed the Constitution," upon whom does our author's conscience put 
" the broad seal of disgrace and infamy," when he says in relation 
to the law that forbids slaves the advantages of education, that "in 
such a case, obedience to a human law is crime : it is treason against 
the majesty of Heaven and earth? " — p. 105. 

One of the most unfortunate allusions, in Mr. Stuart's pamphlet, 
is that which he makes to the Hon. William Jay, who recently pre- 
sided over an anti-slavery meeting in the city of New York. His 
language is as follows : — 

" I could not help thinking more particularly on one great and good man, 
who took an active part in all the formative process of our general government, 
and by his skill and wisdom saved our new settlements from the horrors of In- 
dian acroi-ession. Every one will of course know, that I speak of the illustrious 
JoHi^ Jay. What if his portrait had been hanging in the hall where the 



79 



Anti-slavery Society recently met, under the presiding auspices of his descen- 
dant ? Would it not have brought to every mind, the recollection of what the 
Earl of Chatham said, when addressing a descendant (then in the House of 
Commons) of a noble ancestor, whose picture was in full view ? His words 
were ; ' From the tapestry which adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor 
looks down, and frowns upon his degenerate offspring.' I must except, in my 
application of this declaration, the last two words. They should not be applied 
to such a man as the Hon. William Jay. But I may say : Would not his im- 
mortal ancestor have looked down with a mixture of sorrow and frowning, on 
a descendant who could exhort his countrymen to disregard and trample under 
foot the Constitution which his father had so signally helped to establish ; and 
who could pour out an unrestrained torrent of vituperation upon Mr. Webster, 
who has taken up the Constitution where Mr. Jay's ancestor left it, and stood 
ever since in the place of the latter as its defender and expounder ? How 
would that agitated and frowning face, moreover, have gathered blackness, 
when the presiding officer of that meeting went on to say, that Mr. Webster 
had not made his Speech from any conviction of sentiment, but because the 
cotton merchants and manufacturers of Boston demanded such views to be 
maintained, and these gentry had of course given it their approbation," 

Had Mr. Stuart been acquainted with the views of the " illustri- 
ous John Jay," upon slavery, he would never have written this par- 
agraph ; for it appears from the life and writings of Jay, that he 
was not only strongly opposed to slavery, but was President of an 
anti-slavery society. 

In one of his letters from Spain, he wrote as follows : 

" The State of New York is rarely out of my mind or heart, and I am often 
disposed to write much respecting its affairs, but I have so little information as 
to its present political objects and operations, that I am afraid to attempt it. 
An excellent law might be made out of the Pennsylvania one, for the gradual 
abolition of slavery. Till America comes into this measure, her prayers to 
Heaven will be impious. This is a strong expression, but it is just. Were I 
in your Legislature, I would present a bill for the purpose with great care, and 
I would never cease moving it till it became a law, or I ceased to be a member. 
I believe that God governs the world, and I believe it to be a maxim in His, as 
in our court, that those who ask for equity ought to do it." 

As president of an anti-slavery society, Mr. Jay corresponded 
with several other societies, and was for many years zealously devoted 
to the advancement of human freedom. So that " the portrait 
of the illustrious John Jay," suspended upon the walls, at the late 



80 

anti-slavery meeting, would not have been as inappropriate a deco- 
ration as the Professor imagines. 

Since preparing the above, I have received a pamphlet written 
by the Hon. William Jay, in which he not only confirms the state- 
ments that I have made, but furnishes the most abundant evidence 
of his father's deep hostility to American slavery. He also most 
fully and ably defends himself against the unwarrantable attack 
made upon him by Professor Stuart. In alluding to his illustrious 
father, he says that " he continued to occupy the chair of the socie- 
ty till 1792, when he resigned it on taking his seat on the bench, 
as Chief Justice of the United States." 

In November 1785, this society issued 2000 copies of a strong 
anti-slavery pamphlet, which was dedicated " to the Honorable 
members of the Continental Congress." From this tract Mr. Jay 
makes the following quotations : 

" We naturally look to you in behalf of more than half a million of persons 
in these colonies, who are under such a degree of oppression and tyranny as to 
be wholly deprived of all civil and personal liberty, to which they have as good 
a rigid as any of their fellow-men, and are reduced to the most abject state of 

bondage and slavery, without any just cause May you judge the 

poor of the people, save the children of the needy, relieve the oppressed, and 
deliver the spoiled out of the hands of the oppressor, and be the happy instru- 
ments of procuring and establishing universal liberty to white and black, to 
be transmitted down to the latest posterity." 

Indeed, I would venture to advance the opinion that these " im- 
mortal men and patriots " stand in as little need of the Professor's 
protection, as do Moses, Isaiah and Paul, concerning whose reputa- 
tion he seems to be so sensitive. They were men who not only felt 
the evils of slavery, but who were ready to raise their voices in 
denunciation of its crimes and atrocities, and who did all in their 
power to rid our nation of the curse. 



XL THE DIRECT QUESTION. 

We now approach the direct question. What shall be done with 
the fugitive slave clause in the Constitution ? It is there, and is 
very plain. 



83b 

Art. IV. § 3 : " No persoa held to service or labor in one State, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regula- 
tion therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, 
on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." 

Mr. Webster says, most emphatically and earnestly, it must be 
obeyed. His language is : 

" But as it now stands, the business of seeing that these fugitives are deliv- 
ered up, resides in the power of Congress and the national judicature, and my 
friend at the head of the Judiciary Committee has a bill on the subject now be- 
fore the Senate, with some amendments to it, which I propose to support, 
with all its provisions, to the fullest extent. And I desire to call the attention 
of all sober-minded men, of all conscientious men in the North, of all men who 
are not carried away by any fanatical idea, or by any false idea whatever, to 
their Constitutional obligations. I put It to all the sober and sound minds at the 
North, as a question of morals and a question of conscience. AVhat right have 
they, in their legislative capacity, or any other, to endeavor to get round this 
Constitution, to embarrass the free exercise of the rights secured by the Con- 
stitution to the persons whose slaves escape from them. None at all, none at 
all. Neither in the form of conscience, nor before the face of the Constitu- 
tion, are they justified, in my opinion. 

Wherever I go, and whenever I speak on this subject — and when I speak 
here I desire to speak to the whole North — I say that the South has been in- 
jured in this respect, and has a right to complain, and the North has been too 
careless of what I think the Constitution peremptorily and emphatically enjoins 
upon it as a duty." 

Mr. Stuart says, with equal emphasis and earnestness, that this 
clause must be obeyed, and obeyed too, " whatever we may think of 
the claim of the master in the light of Christianity !" 

Suppose now, that as a person desiring to become a citizen of 
these United States, I am required to yield my cordial assent to the 
Declaration of Independence, and to the Constituton. First, the 
Declaration of Independence is read to me, which was signed by the 
delegates from all the original States, and adopted as the basis of aU 
the State Constitutions. 

I listen, as a conscientious man, to this passage : " We hold these 

truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they 

are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that 

among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That 

7* 



82 

to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriv- 
ing their powers from the just consent of the government." 

To this I yield mv cordial assent. I bow to it, not with the for- 
mality of a hypocrite, but with the sincerity of a true patriot, and 
conscientious Christian. I believe in my inmost soul, and with all 
my powers, " these truths to be self evident, that all men are cre- 
ated equal, that they are endowed by nature with certain inaliena- 
ble rio-hts ; that among these are liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness." This doctrine I adopt as the essence and soul of my pohti- 
cal creed, and I am impressed with the conciseness and strength of 
the language which embodies it. 

The preamble to the Constitution is next read to me : " We, the 
people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common 
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America. 

To this I also cordially assent. The words establish justice, en- 
sure domestic tranquility, &c., sink deep into my memory. The 
•whole Constitution is then read, and I mark such passages as these. 
Art. 4, Sec. 2 : — " The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all 
privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States." 

Art 4 of the amendments, — " The right of the people to be se- 
cured in their persons, houses, and papers, and effects, against un- 
reasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated," &c. 

I am, at this time, we will suppose, informed that under this com- 
pact, full and glorious Declaration of Independence, and this free 
Constitution, there are 3,000,000 of people held in the most 'abject 
bondage. They are robbed of all their rights, forbidden to learn to 
read, bought and sold like beasts, called " goods and chattels," their 
children born slaves and themselves exposed to the avarice, cruelty 
and lust of their masters. I am now requested to listen to an arti- 
cle in the Constitution, that requires that these slaves, when they 
flee from their oppressors, to a free State, shall be delivered up. I 
hear the passage read, and am bewildered, staggered; I seek for 
light, and I read from the great expounder of the Constitution, in a 
late speech, the following words : 



" Every member of every Northern Legislature is bound like every other 
officer in the country, by oath, to support the Constitution of the United States, 
and this article of the Constitution, which says to these States they shall deliver 
up fugitives from service, is as binding in honor and conscience as any other 
article. No man fulfils his duty in any Legislature who sets himself to find ex- 
cuses, evasions, escapes, from this Constitutional obligation." 

But have I not just assented, in good faith, to the declaration 
that all men are created equal, and are endowed with inalienable 
rights, among which are life and liberty? To be confident that I 
understand the meaning of words, I look in the dictionary for the 
meaning of the word inalienable. I find that Noah Webster says 
that it means, " Unalienable : that can not be legally or justly 
alienated or transferred to another. ^^ 

I am now placed in a dilemma from which there is no escape. 
The case is a plain one. If I aid in executing this fugitive slave 
clause, I most palpably and directly violate the Declaration of In- 
dependence, and the other portions of the Constitution. The mo- 
ment I put my finger upon a fugitive slave, after my solemn decla- 
ration about inalienable rights, establishing justice, &c., I stand at 
the bar of this republic, at the bar of humanity, at the bar of God, 
condemned as a consummate hypocrite. In the emphatic words of 
Professor Stuart, used in another connection, I am guilty of " trea- 
son against the majesty of heaven and earth." 

Let us now see how the author of the pamphlet before us, gets 
along with this dilemma. He takes the ground that this fugitive 
clause must be obeyed, and adduces, what we suppose he would call 
arguments to sustain his position. After alluding to the passage in 
the Declaration of Independence, that I have quoted, he asks, very 
justly— (p. 57) : 

" After such a declaration before heaven and earth, without one dissenting 
voice, how could the immortal men, whose names are appended to that Decla- 
ration, publish to the world in their Constitution of government, that they fully 
admitted in practice what they had solemnly denied in principle ? How could 
they say. We authorize the practical denial of equality and liberty, and hold, 
that the right to them of the part of a community is 7iot inalienable ? How 
would the despotisms of the old world have pointed the finger of scorn, at the 
palpable disagreement between the Declaration of Independence, and the Con- 
stitution of the United States." 



84 

Hear, now, the answers of the Professor to his own questions. He 
sajs : 1 . "It will be seen, by a moment's reflection, that the appear- 
ance of such a contradiction is in some measure saved, by the soft- 
ened language employed, viz : ' held to service or labor.' " 

" Appearance of such a contradiction in some measure saved !" 
But is the fact altered ? Does this " softened language," " held to 
service," affect the idea — the fact that fugitives shall he delivered 
up ? Will it mitigate the anguish of the returning fugitive, who 
in chains is to be thrown at the feet of his incensed master, to tell 
him that the language under which he is sent back, is " softened" 
by the term " held to service ?" 

2. But let us proceed to the Professor's second point. He con- 
tinues : " Nor is this all. As the matter now is, the article in 
question does not apply to slaves only, but equally to all other per- 
sons lawfully bound to service or labor — to apprentices, to men un- 
der special contract, to all in such a predicament, whether freemen 
or slaves," 

Powerful, indeed ! How does this bear upon the question ? What 
if the article does apply to others, does it apply any the less to 
slaves ? 

3. Our author continues : 

" But, allowing all that has now been said, still, could not the States mutually 
bind themselves to the compact before us? Surely they could. We must be- 
gin the examination of this subject by calling to mind, that each State was, and 
still is a sovereignty within itself. Then, it was absolutely and entirely so ; but 
now, in a more modified and limited manner, since it has assigned over a part 
of its sovereignty rights to the General Government. Each State, then, could, 
and can now, form laws for itself regulating all rights of property or of citizen- 
ship. It could admit any particular class of men to the privileges of citizen- 
ship, or it could exclude them. It could decide what rights one man had, or 
could have, over another, as to demanding ' service or labor.' The compact in 
the Constitution merely declares, that the decisions of each State shall be res- 
pected, and admitted as valid by all the others. 

" This being all plain and certain, it follows, that when men held to service 
or labor by the laws of one State fly to another, the property or service can be 
reclaimed or enforced, as by law belonging to the citizens of that State from 
•which the fugitives came." 

Here the sovereignty of the States is appealed to. But we 
would ask if the States are sovereign, does this justify them in 



85 

doing wrong, or justify us in sustaining them in the wrong. Upon 
this subject of State sovereignty, there is a great deal of loose 
language used. If any one will read the 8th section. Art. 1, of the 
United States Constitution, he will see that our General Govern- 
ment is clothed with powers, that may as properly be denominated 
sovereign, as the powers reserved by the several States. The 
General Government has power to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
imposts, &c. — to borrow money on the credit of the United States, 
to regulate commerce with foreign nations — to establish a rule of 
naturalization — to coin money — to establish post offices — to 
promote science and arts, by securing to authors and inventors, the 
exclusive right to their writings and inventions — to establish courts 
— define and punish piracies — declare war — raise and support 
armies — provide for organizing and disciplining the militia, &c. &c. 

But this matter of sovereignty, either of the States or of the gen- 
eral government, does not reheve the question before us of its diffi- 
culties. It matters not by what power a citizen is placed in the 
dilemma before us. He is there, and it is for him to decide 
whether, as a patriot and christian, he will adhere to the Declara- 
tion of Independence and the spirit of the Constitution, or as a 
time-serving politician he will cling to the fugitive slave clause. 
And if his " conscience " prompts him to take the former course, 
that " conscience " ought not to be made the butt of ridicule by a 
late Professor in Andover Theological Seminary. 

But our author goes on to establish the astounding doctrine, that 
we can restore the fugitive without participating in the guilt of 
slavery. He says, (p. 49) : 

" What participation then have we of the North, in any injustice that may be 
done to the slave in making him property ? Not the least in the world. We 
have simply agreed to deliver up to the inhabitant of another State, that to 
which he has a claim, sanctioned by the law of that State. We have merely 
renounced, in an express manner, a jurisdiction which in fact we never 
had and cannot have. The renunciation removes all ground of doubt or dis- 
pute. What is the harm or sin of this ? And what is the use of assuming a 
jurisdiction which never did and never can belong to us ?" 

In opposition to these views, we would remark, that nothing 
seems to us clearer than that if we restore the fugitive, we partici- 



86 

pate directly in the guilt of slavery. We certainly aid in uphold- 
ing the system — a system which the Professor himself says, has, 
" as existing among us, taken its worst form" — a system that "de- 
grades men made in the image of their God and Redeemer into 
the brute beasts, or (which makes him still lower) converts him 
into mere goods and chattels.''^ Now, the idea that we can do this 
without " harm or sin " is as false as it is weak. If I have a 
neighbor who is doing any great wrong — for instance, committing 
murder, — and I in any way aid him or uphold him in the wrong, 
am I not a participator in his guilt ? 

But our author asks, in continuing his remarks, " What right 
now has Massachusetts to decide for Virginia on such a question 
(the question of property in man) ? Virginia may do wrong (I 
fear she is doing so,) but Virginia is not under our supervision or 
jurisdiction, nor are we in any degree accountable or responsible 
for her errors or sins." 

What ! can I deliver up the fugitive who has as inalienable a 
right to liberty and all its blessings as I have, who has just escaped 
from a system that degrades him below the very beasts, a system 
that Professor Stuart would not have upon his conscience the guilt 
of extending, " for ten thousand worlds," a system the licentious 
features of which are so revolting and horible ? can I aid in restor- 
ing a fellow being to such a depth of degradation and infamy, and 
yet not be " in any degree accountable or responsible ? " 

To advance such an idea is an outrage upon the common sense 
of every freeman in this nation. 

Suppose that I go to Africa, and their aid in the work of man- 
stealing, would not this be a crime ? Do not indeed the laws of 
the United States declare the slave trade to be piracy, and the 
slave trader worthy of death ? I ask, then, how long must the 
stolen man be held in slavery, in order to have slaveholding cease 
to be a sin ? Because several States in this Union have persisted 
in a career of wickedness for so many years, has that wickedness 
ceased to be wickedness ? 

Does Professor Stuart tell me that I can restore the fugitive, 
because he has so long worn the chain, without being " accountable 
or responsible ? " Is not the act of restoring the suffering fugitive, 



87 

as bad ag the original theft ? Has the man by being once cursed by 
this atrocious system of American slavery, lost his inalienable rights ? 
Is he no longer a man ? Has he been, by the God of our race, 
thrown beyond the bounds of human sympathy and the human 
conscience ? Men may laugh at this idea of sympathy. They may 
ridicule this conscience. Then I say let us be consistent. Let us 
no longer exhibit to the world the spectacle of solemn mockery, in 
weeping over oppressed Hungarians, and denouncing European 
despots. Whatever else we are, let us not stand before the civilized 
world, and before the Supreme Judge, a nation of hypocrites ! 

But Mr. Stuart says, p. 60 : "I may think that Virginia, for 
example, does a moral wrong by her slavery laws ; but it is clearly 
no political wrong done to others. The matter belongs to her alone ; 
not to her neighbors." 

This is the favorite argument with all slaveholders and slavery 
supporters, that we have nothing to do with their poUtical or domestic 
institutions. In conversing recently with a clergyman from South 
Carolina, upon this point, I asked him if he was in favor of foreign 
missions ? " Oh yes," he replied, " very much interested in them." 
Why, said I, do you send missionaries to the heathen ? Do you 
not send them to interfere with their institutions — to overthrow 
their religion, break down their cruel laws, change all the habits and 
customs of the people ? Are not our missionaries in the Sandwich 
Islands, Ceylon, India, China and Africa, laboring to do all this ? 
He could not deny it. I then told him that if I had a right, acting 
on the principles, and with the spirit of the gospel, to interfere with 
the domestic institutions of China, I had an equal right to exert 
my humble influence to break down the barbarous institutions of 
Virginia. This right he could not deny. 

There cannot, indeed, be a more absurd idea advanced, than that 
■we can aid in upholding slavery, without participating in the guilt 
of slavery. There is at the North, a vast responsibility in this 
matter — a responsibility that should lead us to exclaim, in the 
words of Jefferson, " I tremble for my country when I reflect that 
God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever.''^ 



88 
XII. — THE TEXAS QUESTION. 

This is a question not to be trifled with. It is a solemn ques- 
tion — a question of deep, vital, and I may add, infinite moment. 
It pertains not simply to the reputation or consistency of Mr. 
Webster and Prof. Stuart, or any other man, but relates to matters 
of far higher importance, to the welfare and happiness of the 
millions who are to occupy this portion of our newly acquired terri- 
tory. It is the question, whether there shall be four States, created 
like Massachusetts, blessed with freedom, wtih public schools, vigorous 
churches, noble benevolent societies, and a virtuous, law loving 
community, or four States like South Carolina, or Louisianna, 
cursed with slavery, with no system of public school instruction, few 
and feeble churches, with little or no literature, a languishing agri- 
culture, paralyzed commerce, without enterprise,industry or philan- 
thropy. 

It is also a question, whether the slavery power in our national 
councils shall be greatly increased, by a large addition of Repre- 
sentatives and Senators from new slave States, and thus the system 
of slavery be perpetuated, and the balance of power be thrown in 
favor of this system, for ages to come. 

This question, therefore, I repeat it, is a solemn and momentous 
question, and should be approached by every American citizen, and 
especially by our Legislators and rulers, under a deep sense of their 
responsibility to the nation, and their accountability to God. 

Mr. Webster, in his slavery speech, takes the ground that we are 
bound to admit four new slave States from Texas, which may be 
formed south of the Missouri Compromise line. His remarks are 
based upon the second section of the resolution of the 1st of 
March, 1845, for the admission of Texas, which is in these words : 

" New States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition 
to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the 
consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be en- 
titled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution. And such 
States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty- 
six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri 
compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as 



89 

the people of each State asking admission may desire ; and in such State or 
States as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri compromise 
line, slavery or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited." 

Upon this Mr. Webster offers the following commentary : 

" Now, what is here stipulated, enacted, secured ? It is, that all Texas 
south of 36 deg. 30 min., which is nearly the whole of it, shall be admitted in- 
to the Union as a slave State. It was a slave State, and, therefore, came in as 
a slave State, and the guarantee is that new States shall be made out of it, and 
that such States as are formed out of that portion of Texas lying south of 36 
dew. 30 min., may come in as slave States to the number of four, in addition to 
the State then in existence, and admitted at the time by these resolutions. I 
know no form of legislation which can strengthen that. I know no mode of 
recognition that can add a tittle of weight to it." 

Again he says : 

" Now, I know no way, I candidly confess, in which this Government, acting 
in good faith, as I trust it always will, can relieve itself from that stipulation 
and pledge, by any honest course of legislation whatever. And, therefore, I 
say again that, so far as Texas is concerned — the whole of Texas south of 36 
deg. 30 min., which I suppose embraces all the slave territory — there is no 
land, not an acre, the character of which is not established by law, a law which 
cannot be repealed without the violation of a contract, and plain disregard 
of the public faith." 

The whole subject of this Texas question may be reduced to a 
few simple points, which we shall endeavor to present as concisely 
and clearly as possible. 

In the first place, what is the nature of the contract that our 
government has formed with Texas ? It is, that new States, not 
exceeding four, that may be formed out of the territory of Texas, 
shall be entitled, on having suflBcient population, to admission to the 
Union under the provision of the Federal Constitution. Those States 
applying for admission south of 36 deg. 30 min., " shall be admit, 
ted into the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each 
State asking admission may desire." Those coming in north of 
36 deg. 30 min., shall come in free. 

Observe, that the whole number to be admitted, slave and free, 

shall not exceed four. If, therefore, one, or two, or three States 

are admitted north of the line frecj only three, or two, or one slave 

State can be admitted, south of the line as slave States. Besides, 

8 



90 

the stipulation in regard to the free States, is positive — " Slave- 
ry, or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall he proliihited.''^ 
The stipulation in regard to the other States is, that they shall come 
with or without slavery, as the people may desire. If the people 
will it, all may come in free. Yet, Mr. Webster says : 

" The guarantee'is/that new States sball be made out of it, (Texan territory) 
and that such States as are formed out of that portion of Texas, lying south of 36 
deg. 30 min., may come in as slave States, to the number of four, in addition 
to the State then in existence, and admitted at that time by these resolutions.' 

Besides, he dwells upon the idea, that they shall he admitted as 
slave States, when the contract is, that they shall be admitted with 
or without slavery. Why did he not in his recent speech dwell 
upon the without, as well as the with? And we might with pro- 
priety ask, why did he go out of his way, when the question before 
Congress was, the admission of free California, to build up an argu- 
ment in favor of the opinion that we are solemnly bound to have in 
the Union five slave States from Texas ! four in addition to the 
original State ! Where was the necessity, at the present moment 
of deep excitement, while the South is opposing so vehemently the 
admission of a free State, of holding up before the North their 
solemn obligations to create out of Texas four slave States ! Would 
it not have been soon enough to have pressed this obligation, if any 
exists, when these slave States had applied for admission ? 

In the second place, let us inquire into the validity oi the contract 
that our government has formed with Texas. 

The sentiment of Massachusetts in respect to the admission of 
slave States to the Union, has been expressed through her Legisla- 
ture in the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That the people of Massachusetts will never consent to use the 
powers reserved to themselves, to admit Texas, or any other State or Terri- 
tory now without the Union, on any other basis than the perfect equality of 
freemen ; and that while slavery or slave representation forms any part of the 
claim or condition of admission, Texas, with her consent, can never be admitted.'' 

In accordance with this resolution, all the Representatives from 
Massachusetts, but one, in both branches of Congress, opposed the 



91 

admission of Texas in February and March, 1845 ; and in December, 
1815, when the final vote was taken on admission, all the Repre- 
sentatives from Massachusetts voted against it. 

Nor has the sentiment of Massachusetts in regard to this matter 
undergone any change, as the resolutions passed by the Legislature 
at their last session abundantly prove. (See a portion of those re- 
solutions, in Art. 2d of this Rewiew, under " Mass. April 27, 

1850.") 

This noble State, therefore, stands pledged to resist by all the 
means in her power, the admission of any new slave States from 
Texas, as she stood pledged in 1 815 to resist the admission of Tex. 
as itself. And in the resolutions passed, April 27, 1850, just 
referred to, she says : — " That the people of Massachusetts, in the 
maintenance of these, their well known and invincible principles, ex- 
pect that all their officers and Representatives will adhere to them, 
at all times, on all occasions, and under all circumstances.^' 

Let us now see what ground Mr. Webster took in 1845, in refer- 
ence to Texas. 

It should be remembered that the resolutions of annexation that 
passed Congress on the first of March, 1845, passed on condition 
that Texas complied with certain requisitions and accepted certain 
guaranties. These resolutions were then submitted to the people 
if Texas for their approval. They having complied with the con- 
ditions, and accepted the guaranties, an act was passed in Decem- 
ber following, by Congress, admitting Texas into the Union. At 
this time Mr. Webster was in the Senate, and in accordance with 
the views of Massachusetts, opposed the annexation bill, and voted 
ao-ainst it. He thus refers to his opposition and vote in his recent 
speech : 

" The annexation resolutions passed the 1st of March, 1845 ; the Legislature 
of Texas complied with the conditions and accepted the guaranties ; for the 
phraseology of the language of the resolution is, that Texas is to come in ' up- 
on the conditions and under the guaranties herein prescribed.' I happened to 
be returned to the Senate in March, 1845, and was here in December, 1845, 
■when the acceptance by Texas of the conditions proposed by Congress were 
laid before us by the President, and an act for the consummation of the con- 
nexion was laid before the two Houses. The connexion was not completed. A 
final law, doing the deed of annexation ultimately and finally, had not been 



passed ; and wben it was upon its final passage here, I expressed my opposi- 
tion to it, and recorded my vote in the negative; and there that vote stands, 
with the observations that I made upon that occasion." 

Among those observations are the following, which express Mr. 
Webster's strong opposition to the bill : 

" It may be said, that according to the provisions of the Constitution, new 
States are to be admitted on the same footing as the old States. It may be so > 
but it does not follow at all from that piOTision, that every territory or portion 
of country may at pleasure establish slavery, and then say we will become a 
portion of the Union ; and will bring with us the principles which we may have 
thus adopted, and must be received on the same footing as the old States. It 
will always be a question, whether the old States have not a right, (and I 
think they have the clearest right,) to require that the State coming into the 
Union should come in upon an equality ; and, if the existence of slavery be an 
impediment to coming in on an equality, then the State proposing to come in 
should be required to remove that inequality by abolishing slavery, or take the 
alternative of being excluded." 

He also said : 

" I agree with the unanimous opinion of the Legislature of Massachusetts, I 
agree with the great mass of the people ; I reaffirm what I have said and 
written in the last eight years, at various times, against the annexation. I here 
record my own dissent and opposition, and I here express and place on record, 
also, the dissent and protest of the State of Massachusetts." 

What is the language of this protest ? Let us hear it. On the 
26th of March, 1845, the Massachusetts Legislature passed the 
following resolution : 

" And whereas the consent of the Executive and Legislative departments of 
the Government of the United States has been given, by a resolution passed 
on the 27th of February last, to the adoption of preliminary measures to 
accomplish this nefarious project, fthe admission of Texas, with the stipulation 
to admit four more States out of its territory ;) therefore be it 

" Rexolved, That Massachusetts hereby refuses to acknowledge the act of the 
Government of the United States, authorizing the admission of Texas, as a 
legal act, in any way binding her from using her utmost exertions in co-opera- 
tion with other States, by every lawful and constitutional measure, to annul its 
conditions, and defeat its accomplishment. 

" Resolved, That no territory hereafter applying to be admitted to the LTnion, 
as a State, should be admitted without a condition that domestic slavery should 
be utterly extinguished within its borders, and Massachusetts denies the validity 



93 

of any compromise whatsoever, that may have been, or that may hereafter be 
entered into by persons in the Government of the Union, intended to preclude 
the future application of such a condition by the people, acting through their 
Representatives in the Congress of the United States" 

Such were the views entertained by Mr. Webster in December, 
1845, when he voted against the admission of Texas ; and let it be 
remembered that this negative vote was given after the Crovernment 
had pledged its honor and faith that Texas shoidd he admitted, on 
complying with the conditions, and accepting the guaranties of the 
resolutions of annexation. 

Now let us suppose that the very next week after Texas is ad- 
mitted, a slave State south of 36 deg. 30 min., apphes for admission 
under the conditions fixed upon, the week previous. Could Mr. 
Webster, after his solemn declarations of the unconstitutionality of 
the whole business of annexation, turn round and vote for the ad- 
mission of this additional State ? Could he do it consistently with 
his own views ? Could he do it authorized by Massachusetts, to 
whose protest he had a few days previous appealed ? Could he do 
it on the ground that the solemn agreement and compacts of the 
Government must be fiulfiUed ? But he had just violated those 
compacts by voting against the admission of Texas. He did what 
he could in December, 1845, to render null and void the solemn 
stipulations entered into by the Government in March, 1845. He 
would, therefore, have felt bound, the week after, to vote against 
fulfilling the stipulation of the week previous, as he then felt bound 
to vote against the action of March 1, 1845. 

Now, if it would have been unconstitutional to have admitted a 
slave State from Texas, the next week, it would have been equally 
so the next year, or five or twenty years afterwards. To this point 
I wish to direct the reader's special attention, for on it turns our 
whole argument on this question. Mr. Webster labors, in his re- 
cent speech, to prove to us that we are bound in good faith to 
receive these slave States, when they apply for admission. I wish 
to show on his own authority, that zee are not hound to receive 
them, but that it lies with the Congress, before which apphcations 
from States for admission may be made, to decide the question of 
admission. He did what he could in December, 1845, to undo the 



94 

action of the Government in March, 1845, and had there been 
but a few more negative votes at that time, Texas ivoidd not have 
been admitted^ notwithstanding she had comphed with the condi- 
tions of admission. In the Senate the vote stood, 27 for admission, 
and 25 against it. 

Suppose Mr. "Webster had, the following week, risen up in the 
Senate, and uttered what he has in his recent speech, would not his 
inconsistency have been most apparent to the whole nation ? And 
does the lapse of five years at all lessen the inconsistency ? Let 
us imagine him saying then, what he has recently said in the fol- 
lowing extracts : 

"But now that, under certain conditions, Texas is in, wltli all her territories, 
as a slave State, with a solemn pledge that if she is divided into many States, 
those States may come in as slave States south of 36 deg. 30 min., how are we 
to deal with this subjeet ? I know no way of honorable legislation, but, when 
the proper time comes for the enactment, to carry into effect all that we have 
stipulated to do. * * * I wish it to be distinctly understood to- 
day, that according to my view of the matter, this Government is solemnly 
pledged by law to create new States out of Texas, with her consent, when her 
population shall justify such a proceeding, and so far as such States are formed 
out of Texan territory lying south of 36 deg. 30 min., to let them come in as 
slave States." 

That he has not reached this change of opinion at a single leap, 
may be shown from his other speeches. In March 23d, 1848, he 
said, " It shall be in the 'power of Congress hereafter to make four 
other new States out of Texan territory." 

In 1845, he took, as we have seen, strong and decided 
ground against admitting Texas. 

In 1848, he simply declares, that it is in the power of Congress 
to make new States out of Texas, and now he says : — "I wish it 
to be distinctly understood, to-day, that according to my view of the 
matter, this Government is solemnly pledged hy law and coyitract to 
create new States out of Texas," &c. 

While Massachusetts has not changed on this question, but has 
reiterated in 1850 the same sentiments that she expressed in 
1845, Mr. Webster has changed. Now, shall the country change 
•with him ? For one, I answer, no. Massachusetts, through her 
legislature, has answered no. With all our respect for Mr. Web- 



96 

ster, with all our gratitude for his past services, with all our admira- 
tion for his splendid talents, we cannot, we will not bow to the senti- 
ments of this pro-slavery speech. 

Still farther evidence of Mr. Webster's former views of this an- 
nexation scheme, may be found in his speech on the loan bill, deliv- 
ered in the Senate in 1848. He said : 

" Experience shows us that things of this sort may be sprung upon Con- 
gress and the people. It was so in the case of Texas. It was so in the 28th 
Congress. The members of that Congress were not chosen to decide the ques- 
tion of annexation or no annexation. They came in on other grounds, political 

and party, &c What then ? The Administration sprung upon 

them the question of annexation. ... It obtained a snap judgment upon 

it, and carried the measure of annexation I think I see a course 

adopted that is likely to turn the Constitution under which we live into a deform- 
ed monster — into a curse rather than a blessing, into a great frame of national 
government, not founded upon popular representation, but founded on the 
grossest inequalities ; and I think if it go on — for there is danger that it will 
go on — that this government will be broken up. 

From this language, we perceive that Mr. Webster, no longer 
ago than in 1848, considered the admission of Texas, not only as a 
violation of the Constitution, but such a violation as is likely to turn 
the Constitution into a deformed monster — to make it a curse, rather 
than a blessing ; and yet he now tells us that we are bound " in 
honor and conscience " to perpetuate this deformity — to persist in a 
course that will make this instrument a deeper curse to this nation ! 
Is it, I would ask, worthy of the great expounder of the Constitu- 
tion, to give to the American people such advice as this ? Is it 
worthy of the American people to follow such advice ? Will they, 
even at the bidding of the late defender of the Constitution, tram- 
ple this instrument under their feet, and hug to their bosoms a de- 
formed monster? Will Massachusetts do this — the noble State 
that resisted the preliminary measures for annexation — that resist- 
ed the action of March 1, 1845 — that resisted the final action in 
December. Never, never, never. Massachusetts is bound by her 
solemn and oft repeated declaration, to resist the admission of any 
and every slave State to this Union. And when a State from Texas 
shall be found knocking at the door of the Union, pleading for 
admittance with her curse, slavery, Massachusetts will, to the ex- 



96 

tent of her influence, refuse her admittance. And if, in time to 
come, any Senator or Representative is found advocating the admis- 
sion of a slave State from Texan territory, he will be supporting not 
the Constitution of the United States, but a deformed monster, the 
Hon. Daniel Webster being the judge. He will be found 
sustaining not the national honor, but the national disgrace. 
He will be ratifying a measure, that Mr. Webster tells us is likely 
to turn the Constitution into a curse. 

But one of the most remarkable and humiliating features in this 
whole matter is, that such men as Professor Stuart, Dr. Woods, 
President Sparks, and others, should cordially and fully endorse 
these sentiments. After thanking Mr. Webster for the services he 
has rendered to the country by his recent speech, and for recalling 
them to their duties under the Constitution, they say, " We desire 

TO EXPRESS TO YOU OUR ENTIRE CONCURRENCE IN THE SENTIMENTS 

OF YOUR SPEECH." And Professor Stuart in his pamphlet seems 
to be burning with indignation towards the Hon. Mr. Mann, and 
others, for opposing Mr. Webster on this Texas question. He 
says, after, referring to some of their arguments, — 

" Such are the envenomed arrows, which this new Free Soilism and Aboli- 
tionism stores up in the quivers of its advocates. I know of no better exhibi- 
tion or proof of the tendency of the spirit which it engenders, than is to be 
seen in the cases of such men as Judge Jay and the Hon. Mr. Mann. It can 
furnish gentlemen, scholars, men of cultivated minds and hitherto Uameless 
lives, with the whole stores of annoyance that exist in the magazine of vitupe- 
ration and calumny, and prompt them to the active appropriation of these 
stores. This is enough to make any sober, quiet man pause, and ask whether 
such is ' the armor of truth and of God.' 

" No. Mr. Mann ; ' a wanton surrender of the rights of the North,' is not to 
be said of Daniel Webster. Swords would leap, if it were lawful and necessa- 
ry, from hundreds of thousands of scabbards, to defend him against such an 
assult." 

Not quite so fast. Swords leap from their scabbards! The 
swords in Massachusetts, and New England, zvouldrust in "hundreds 
of thousands of scabbards," rather than be drawn in defense of 
such sentiments as Mr. Webster has advanced. Of all the States 
in this Union, Massachusetts is the very last to defend such views. 
We cannot indeed, contemplate the noble career of this State, her 



97 

philanthropliy, Christianity, her high moral and intellectual charac- 
ter, without the most enthusiastic admiration. When we remember 
that more than two hundred years ago, this people being then colo- 
nists, sent back to Africa the first cargo of slaves that was landed 
upon their shores, and from that hour to this have steadily resisted 
and fought against the system of slavery — when we remember 
that here the foreign missionary enterprise, the temperance reforma- 
tion, and a large number of our religious and benevolent societies 
had their birth — when we remember that here the first college in 
our country was established, the first public school house was 
erected, and that the enterprise of this State built the first railroad, 
erected the first manufactory, and that she now boasts of more of 
the substantial comforts and blessings of life, more general intelli- 
gence, liberality and piety, than can be found within any other ter- 
ritory of equal population upon the globe, — we are confident that, 
in this crisis, she will stand firm, maintaining, with an unfaltering 
energy, those glorious principles of liberty, justice, and right, for 
which she has always contended. And if, in this 19th century, in 
this enlightened age, in this free. Christian nation, the monstrous 
and horible system of American slavery is extended, it will be done 
in spite of her solemn protests, her earnest efforts, her fervent 
prayers. 



XIII — CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

In reviewing the ground which we have gone over, we find that 
the views on slavery which are advocated by the editors of the Atlas, 
by the friends of freedom in Congress, and by the mass of the peo- 
ple who dissent from Mr. Webster, are the same that were held by 
the immortal Washington, by Lafayette, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, 
Monroe, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Adams, and a large number 
of the framers of the U. S. Constitution. We have seen that they 
coincide with the opinions recently expressed by very many of our 
Northern State Legislatures, and our most influential ecclesiastical 
bodies. We have seen that the positions that Professor Stuart has 
attempted to maintain, are utterly untenable, and that the Bible 



98 

condemns slavery as a moral evil. We have seen that the views 
advanced bj Mr. Webster in his recent slavery speech, are totally 
inconsistent with his opinions as expressed in 1845 and 1848, and 
that by following his advice we become violaters, rather than sup- 
porters of the Constitution of the United States. 

But the question presses upon our attention — What shall be done 
in the present crisis? We answer — let California be admitted 
forthwith to this Union, untrammelled by other and foreign matters. 
From every free State — from every northern Legislature, there 
should go forth long and loud the cry, admit California ! We 
have been trifled with long enough in this matter. The rights of 
the North have been trampled under foot long enough. 

But the slave-holder tells us " we must compromise ; " " if free- 
dom is to be extended, we claim the right to preserve the balance 
of power, by extending slavery." To this we would reply, liberty 
cannot compromise with slavery. It is an element so entirely 
hostile to slavery, that it cannot meet it on equal ground. 
It is at war with slavery. It ever has been at war with 
it, and ever will be. It seeks the destruction, the annihilation of its 
foe. As well might truth compromise with error, virtue compro- 
mise with vice, Christianity compromise with heathenism. 

Suppose for a moment that the missionaries sent to the heathen 
by the American Board, should meet to frame a compromise with 
idolatry. They are told that strong prejudices exist against Chris- 
tianity in the community — that heathenism is of great antiquity — 
that it existed before the flood, in the time of Moses, when the 
prophets wrote, and in the apostolic age. They listen to a plan 
of compromise which requires, as a condition on which they may 
remain in the country, that for every child that receives baptism, a 
heathen child shall be thrown to crocodiles ; that for every convert 
admitted to a Christian church, a heathen shall be crushed under 
the wheels of Juggernaut : that for every village brought under the 
blessed influence of the Gospel, an equal number of persons in 
another district, shall be brought under the cursed influence of 
idolatry ; and that fugitives escaping from heathen to a Christian 
district shall be restored to the cruelties, ignorance, and superstitions 
of the horrible system from which they have fled ! 



m 

What would tlie prudential committee of the American Board 
think of such a compromise ? And suppose that the missionaries 
write home, that the matter is producing a great excitement, and 
that in some way the agitation must be calmed down, or the most 
disastrous results may follow ! 

Would not the committee write back, (to treat, for a moment, 
seriously, so ridiculous a supposition) that the missionary's business 
is not to compromise, but to destroy ? Would they not tell him 
that he is sent to make war upon all the institutions of the heathen, 
social, civil and religious — to overthrow every system of iniquity — to 
estabhsh in every heart the principles of justice, humanity and piety? 

But, says the slave-holder, you must compromise, or we will des- 
troy/ the Union! 

But we have heard this threat too often to be alarmed by it. 
This cry of " the dissolution of the Union," was raised by South 
Carolina and Georgia, soon after the Constitution was adopted ; and 
from that day to this, it has been their resort in every emergency. 
In 1820, when the question of admitting Missouri was before Con- 
gress, the cry was, " admit this State as a slave State, or we will 
desolve the Union," and at that time, no little alarm was excited by 
this threat. 

In 1832, when the tariff was agitated. South Carolina was found 
at her old business, crying " dissolution of the Union,'^ and then 
she attempted as a preliminary step, to carry her nuUiJacation doc- 
trines into effect. But the firmness of General Jackson withstood 
the assault, and though Congress apprehended serious difficulties, 
yet the Union survived the storm. 

When the Hon. John Quincy Adams stood up so manfully for the 
right of petition and freedom of speech on the slavery question, the 
same cries were heard, and yet the Union stands as firm today as 
it ever stood. Let the reader notice that in 1820 the cry was, "we 
will dissolve the Union if you do not admit a slave State ; " the cry 
now is, " we will dissolve the Union if you do admit a free State ! " 
And how long, I would ask, are we to be frightened out of our 
rights and liberties, by this perpetual growl ? Do not the northern 
advocates of " compromise " see any danger to the Constitution 
and to the Union by yielding so frequently to the unreasonable de- 
mands of the slave power ? 



l.^t 



100 

" We Lave been taught," yes, honored teacher,* " tve have hem 
taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel on the 
watch-tower of liberty. Is he to be blind, though visible danger 
approaches ? Is he to be deaf, though sounds of peril fill the air ? 
Is he to be damh, while a thousand duties impel him to raise the cry 
of alarm ? Is he not rather to catch the lowest whisper that 
breathes intention or purpose of encroachment on the public liber- 
ties, and to give his voice breath and utterance at the first appear- 
ance of danger ? " Yes, yes ! All Massachusetts answers. Yes ! 
The whole nation thunders, Yes ! And never was there a more 
splendid opportunity for Mr. Webster to have given " his voice, 
breath and utterance at the appearance of danger," than when he 
uttered his memorable, shall I add, fatal speech. 

With the eyes of 20,000,000 of people fastened upon him — with 
the heart of a nation beating with intense anxiety to know what the 
great champion of liberty would say, with the destiny of future 
States and future generations balancing in the scale, he might, while 
he was wholly true to the Constitution — true to all the past acts of 
this government, true to the reasonable demands of the South, he 
might have uttered sentiments and established principles that would 
have done honor to the nation, reflected glory upon our age, and en- 
titled him to the warm thanks and lasting gratitude of the civilized 
world. The excuse, indeed, reiterated in our hearing, is that his 
object was to allay excitement and preserve the Union. But 
in order to do this was Mr. Webster forced to make concessions, 
and advance views that shock the moral sense of the North ? Was 
he forced to yield to the South what she had no more right to ask 
than we had to grant ? Let the South be taught that there are 
eternal principles of right and justice, from which the North cannot 
and will not swerve ; that there are obligations that we owe to man- 
kind, and to God, which must be met at all hazards, — that there 
are claims touching the extension of slavery, to which we cannot 
yield without subverting the great doctrines upon which all our free 
institutions rest, and this cry will be, in a measure, hushed. If it 
is not, then the responsibihty of endangering the Union rests upon 

*Mr. Webster. 



101 

the South, not upon us. If she in her madness chooses, in every 
conflict between liberty and slavery, to put the Union on the lino 
of battle, there to be shattered by the contending forces, iqjon her 
rests the responsibility. The God of liberty will never place this 
nation in circumstances that will demand of any of us, the sacrifice 
of long cherished principles of right and justice. 

It would be well for us, at this crisis, to listen to the words of 
the immortal Washington, as uttered in 1796, in his farewell address. 
He said : 

" It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great 
nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a peo- 
ple always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt 
that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly 
repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence 
to it ? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of 
a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every 
sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it rendered impossible by 
its vices ? " 

Before closing I would remark, that it has been my endeavor to 
treat Mr. Stuart's pamphlet with fairness and courtesy. I have 
quoted freely from it, that his very words might be before the reader, 
to enable him to form his own opinion of the justness of the criti- 
cisms that we have offered. Most gladly would we have coincided 
with the views expressed by the venerable and learned Professor, 
had it been in our power to have done so. But we have felt com- 
pelled to sacrifice the promptings of personal respect and affection, 
to the stern call of duty ; and if we have uttered a word that will, 
in the least degree, advance the cause of liberty, quicken the 
friends of humanity, or alleviate the sufferings of a single slave, we 
shall not have written in vain. 

We firmly believe, notwithstanding the strong efforts that are 
made to sustain and to extend American slavery, that this system is 
doomed ere long to fall. With the intelhgence, humanity and 
Christianity of the age against it, with the testimony of all the 
civilized nations of the earth against it, with the united voice of so 
many of our civil and ecclesiastical bodies against it, with the God 
of heaven against it, it must fall. And in the eloquent language 



102 



of the Hon. Daniel Webster, of 1820, "I invoke the ministers of our 
religion, that tlioy j loclaim its denunciation of those crimes. 
If til.' / idpit he sUent, whenever or ivherever there rnai/ he a miner 
hloody with this guilt, within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit 
1:3 FALSE TO ITS TRUST." 



Since these articles were first published, the Fugitive Slave Bill 
has been passed by Congress, and has become the laAV of the land ; 
a bill, the most extraordinary, disgraceful, and atrocious, that -was 
ever recorded upon the statute books of this nation. We are filled 
with astonishment and indignation, that Northern freemen, in this 
enlightened, Christian age, could so far forget their obligations to 
God, and their duties to mankind, as to vote for such a measure. 
Not only have they trampled under foot the dearest right of hu- 
manity, but they have virtually made slaves of us all, — yes, con- 
signed us over, if we submit to the law, to an ignominious bondage ; 
binding us, under the penalty of fine and imprisonment, not only 
to refuse to harbor, or give a morsel of food to the panting fugitive, 
but to assist in recapturing him and fastening upon him the chains 
which he has broken. At the bidding of the most recreant, cruel, 
and debased slave driver in the country, every man, woman, and 
child, every freeman, philanthropist and Christian, in the land — 
every senator, national representative, governor, minister, law- 
yer, physician, teacher, merchant, and mechanic, is bound to assist 
in carrying into execution this law. However long the fugitive may 
have resided among us, and wherever he may be found, whether 
eno-ao-ed in an honorable occupation, or seated at his fire-side sur- 
rounded by an affectionate family, or worshipping God in the sanc- 
tuary, or partaking of the emblems of the body and blood of his 
Saviour, he may be seized, and his minister and fellow-Christians 
be commanded to fasten the chains upon him, and drag him back to 
the degradation and horrors of Southern slavery. Will the Ameri- 
can people submit to such unparalleled tyranny ? Have we all be- 
come so debased, so weak, so timid, as to yield to such a bondage ? 



103 

Talk of the free States of this Union ! Under this atrocious law 
there are no free States. There is not a freeman in the land, — 
we are all bound to work for the slaveholder. If he requires our 
services, an hundred times in a day, we are commanded to render 
them, under pain of the severest penalties. 

What a spectacle for American citizens to exhibit before the 
civilized world ! With all our boasted freedom, our Protestant 
Churches, our numerous and excellent Schools, our Bible Societies, 
Tract Societies, Missionary Societies, and our sympathy for the op- 
pressed of other lands, the twenty millions of American freemen 
turned Slave-catchers ! ! We, model republicans ! rather model 
hypocrites. 

But this law cannot stand, will not stand. It is too foul a libel 
upon our/ree institutions to be tolerated. It is too deep and bitter 
a cup of abominations for even the northern apologists for slavery 
to drink. It is too gross an insult to the God of heaven to allow us 
to hope to escape his vengeance. 

Politicians tell us, indeed, that the slavery questions are settled. 
Settled? As well might they tell us that the controversy that 
God has with the apostate world is settled. As well might they 
strive to convince us that the struggle between good and evil, Chris- 
tianity and heathenism, liberty and despotism, heaven and hell, are 
settled. This Bill will arouse and excite this nation, as it has never 
been aroused or excited before. Already, in the meetings that are 
being held, and the expressions of indignation that come to us 
through the press, do we hear the deep murmurings of the approach- 
ing storm ; a storm that will try the hearts of men, and shake this 
republic to its centre. " I tremble for my country when I remem- 
ber that God is just," and I tremble at the indications that the day 
is near at hand, when we must account to the Great Judge for the 
guilt of so long retaining, in so favored a nation, this system of 
slavery. 



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